


The Cherished Child

by beth9891



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: F/M, M/M, Minor Character Death, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-20
Updated: 2014-10-07
Packaged: 2018-02-14 00:35:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 67,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2171265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beth9891/pseuds/beth9891
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Au: What if a deal was struck between the wizarding world and the Volturi during the Voldemort's first reign. The vampires help the light side in exchange for two wizards? How would this effect the boy-who-lived. Would he be able to survive, and even thrive amongst the vampires, and what woulld happen when you mix forks, cullens and the wolves into the mix? Slash pairing</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: Shake hands with the devil

**Author's Note:**

> So I decided to post a crossover fic that I have been working on, on and off. I believe it will be a jasper/harry pairing but haven't decided quite yet. It's my first attempt at a crossover so let me know what you think!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own harry potter or twilight etc. if you recongize it from the books it's not mine ;)

** Prologue: Shake hands with the Devil  **

_We're all Hitler inside. We're all Christ inside. I'm not keen on the idea, but it's true, isn't it? We've all got a little bit of the devil in us.” ―_ [ _Jason Jack Miller_ ](http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4729752.Jason_Jack_Miller) _,_ [ _The Devil and Preston Black_ ](http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/15746891)

**_London, Britain_ **

**_December 23, 1975_ **

****

The streets of London were uncharacteristically sullen and bleak. Last minute holiday shoppers scurried warily from place to place, none willing to prolong their stay on the no longer safe streets. The store fronts were somehow duller, the stone streets colder, the skies bleaker.

It had been this way for months now, and although the muggles didn’t understand their feelings of fear and worry it kept them close to their homes. Many feet below the unimposing red telephone box and dingy law offices, (their walls covered in unsightly graffiti), sat a room full of equally bleak and somber men and women. Or more precisely desolate witches and wizards, along with several gleeful vampires.

Albus Dumbledore, the aged war hero and veteran could not help but feel that they were making a deal with the devil himself as he regretfully signed his own flourished signature to the contract.

He feared the consequences of making such a deal…but they were desperate, they were running out of options. Well, out of options that would help ensure the survival of the wizarding world, that is.

Millicent Bagnold, the current Ministeress of Magic, looked just as unhappy with the deal but like Albus she signed the contract.

The contract that stated that in exchange for the help of the Volturi and vampire race in the war against Voldemort, the Volturi leaders (Aro, Caius, and Marcus) would be allowed two magical beings of their choosing; regardless of status in the wizarding world, race, or sex.

The beings that they chose would have no say in the matter and would be forced to surrender to the vampire race under the newest wizarding edict “for the greater good,”- a law passed that stated: that if the Minster/Ministeress and majority of high office agreed that the agreed upon law or action would be carried out.

This was the first of such laws passed, five years into Voldemort’s reign of terror (as everyone was now calling it). The ministry had been fighting as hard as it could against the mass murder for the past three years, ever since 1972, but they had only now resorted to Martial law at the start of this year…1975.

Every witch and wizard that signed the contract could not help but fear the purpose of the vampire’s request. They did not want to think too hard on what exactly the vampires would choose to do with their sacrifices; they only prayed that when the leaders made their choices, it would not be one of them or one of their loved ones.

Caius smirked viciously as he rolled up the magically binding agreement, while Aro smiled full of childish delight and Marcus simply looked bored….which was useful for the ancient being, apparently.

“Good, good…so happy we could reach a peaceable agreement” Aro tittered, beaming at the morose men and women around him.

Ministeress Bagnold nodded succinctly before shaking the vampire’s hand, her unease increasing as Aro’s smile increased as he grasped the proffered hand.

After a brief handshake, that the Ministeress was quick to end, shooting a wary glance at the still smiling vampire, the parties departed ways.

The three ancient vampires, along with their group of chosen guard, made their way leisurely from the hidden Minstery.

“And pray tell me brother, what exactly was the purpose of this pathetic deal?” Caius asked acerbically, “if we were going to lower ourselves to dealing with these filthy blood-bags why did we turn down their ‘ _Dark Lord_ ’” he paused his tone making it known just how highly he thought of the pale, conceited wizard that had sent his minions to make a deal with them weeks ago. “At least he offered us unlimited feeding off of his enemies”

Aro took no note of his brother’s angry tone and disgruntled look, smiling happily back at him as they continued their stroll down the mostly deserted streets…pity, they would now have to wait until they were out of Britain to find a meal…

“Oh, brothers have faith. I touched one of his minion’s hands, Voldemort would not have kept his deal with us after he won the war….he despises what he sees as impurities. We would have just become another enemy to hunt and kill. The deal we have just struck will pay off….they put no time frame on our choice. We will choose two that will give us undeniable power over the rest of their pitiful species….do not fear” Aro answered confidently.

While not completely soothed, Caius relaxed. If he could trust Aro for anything it was the acquisition of power.

No doubt the mortal’s they chose would be powerful, how powerful remained to be seen.

 

 

 

 

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

**Godric’s Hollow**

**October 31, 1981**

The night was both full of relieved joy and heart wrenching sorrow for Albus Dumbledore. He looked down at the beautiful child in his arms feeling a deep sadness for the sleeping toddler. The boy had lost everything tonight, and yet had given the wizarding world so much.

He sighed in regret as he looked down at the thin, sallow grieving man in front of him, clutching desperately to the lifeless body of Lily Potter.

“Severus” he said his voice hard and cold, for it was the man in front of him who was partially to blame for the young parents’ deaths.

The man let out a heart wrenching sob of grief that helped crack the cold anger Albus felt towards him. “You swore to protect her…you swore..” he trailed off rocking back and forth, not yet relinquishing his grip on the dead woman.

“Enough Severus! You knew that this was unforeseeable. Do not forget what part you played in her death…” Dumbledore stated coldly. Seeing the crushing amount of guilt in those onyx colored eyes he softened his tone, “What is done cannot be undone Severus…what do you plan to do now? What will you do to protect Lily’s son?”

“…her son? Why should I care what happens to the brat. Lily is dead because of him” Severus spat staring hatefully at the sleeping child in Albus’s arms.

“Do you really believe that Severus? Are you willing to ignore Lily’s love for the boy all because of your petty rivalry with the child’s father?” Albus asked softly.

Severus looked torn as he stared down at the black haired boy. He closed his eyes, the pain obvious in the lines etched on his prematurely aged face, “…no” he whispered softly a tear sliding down his cheek. “What do you need me to do Albus?” he asked.

“Swear an oath to protect him…for Lily” Albus answered waiting for the man in front of him to refuse out of anger and grief.

Severus did neither, he nodded slowly and held out his wand, “I Severus Tobias Snape, do swear to protect the child known as Harrison James Potter, from harm or ill intent with my life should need be. So mote it be.” The silvery black of Severus’s magic swirled around him at his words.

Albus raised his wand in response, “I, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, witness and recognize Severus Tobias Snape’s vows. May magic carry them out. So mote it be” his own sky-blue magic swirled to seal the deal.

Both men gave a start when they heard a smooth, ancient voice, “How precious….truly”

Albus spun to see the vampire he had signed a contract with five six years earlier, standing calmly behind him with a knowing smirk on his lips. He could not help the dread he felt at the sight of Aro and two other vampires’ presence.

“What do you want?” he asked his voice slightly choked. He knew what they wanted he just prayed it wasn’t so.

“What do you think I want, dear Albus…I have come to claim my end of the bargain of course” Aro stated smiling benignly at the two wizards in front of him, one horrified and the other rather confused.

Aro continued on as if they were meeting for tea, rather than to claim a the lives of two people, “Oh…how rude of me, introductions are in order….Albus please meet two of my guard: Felix” he stated gesturing to the broad, powerful looking vampire standing to his left, “and Jane” he looked toward a pale, beautiful child-like girl standing on his left. “And tell me Albus who is this young man who is so willing to forfeit his own life to protect that of a child?”

Albus swallowed, getting the feeling that Aro was asking for more than mere curiosity or social propriety, “Aro meet Severus Snape.”

“Hmmm….indeed, come here child” Aro directed to a wary looking Severus, holding out his hand. Severus looked to Dumbledore in confusion but receiving a reluctant nod from the old wizard he did as instructed.

Aro grasp onto his forearm and closed his eyes, a delighted smile growing as he became perfectly still. After a long moment he released Severus’s arm and took a step back.

“Excellent, the choice is made. I, Aro, King and ruler of the Volturi, claim the wizards, Harry James Potter and Severus Tobias Snape as per agreement of amendment 64” Aro stated the words clearly.

Severus looked to Albus in confusion, fear taking its place when the Leader of the light’s face fell in despair. “I am so sorry Severus, there is nothing I can do…should I refuse, not only will I, but all of Britain’s wizards and witches will lose their magics. Forgive me child….and protect him”

Albus handed Severus the sleeping toddler before stepping back, he turned to Aro and the others grief evident in his tired features, “Our side of the agreement has been fulfilled. Please do not hurt them” he added the last in a desperate plea.

With those words spoken, he turned and apparated away, tears falling from his once twinkling blue eyes.

Aro looked over his newest acquisitions greedily; the toddler was still sleeping, blissfully unaware of how his life once again was being given for the greater good, the man who held him unfortunately was more than aware.

Jane and Felix moved to stand on either side of the two wizards, placing cold hands on Severus’s forearms.

Aro smiled, “Come…do not fear pet, you will come to no harm” he stated to Severus before turning to his fellow vampires, “Let us go back to Volterra….we mustn’t keep the others waiting”.


	2. A gilded cage

** Chapter one:  ** **A Gilded cage**

**\----------------------------------------------------------**

_The sunlight on the garden Hardens and grows cold, We cannot cage the minute Within its nets of gold_

**_\--------------------------------------------------------_ **

**August 10, 1984**

**Volterra, Italy**

**Harry- age 5**

Jubilant peals of childish laughter could be heard echoing off of the cold marble walls of the Volturi Stronghold. The mischievous five year old that it belonged to, was currently engaged in his favorite game of run and hide from his Uncle Sev.

Of course Uncle Severus never seemed to find the game nearly as much fun as Hayden but that had never stopped the energetic child. Unknown to the green eyed trouble maker, Severus engaged in this game mainly to humor the child. It wasn’t as if Hayden could ever truly hide from Severus’s supernatural senses after all.

Today however Severus had waited a little too long to start looking for the boy and to his concern he had actually managed to lose the boy’s scent. Normally this would not have been a problem, given the fact that Hayden was one of very few mortals who actually entered, not to mention lived inside the walled sanctum.

Severus had forgotten however that today was a ‘hunting’ day and there was in fact a large group of unsuspecting mortal’s present inside the Volturi walls. This was most definitely not a good thing. Aro, not to mention Caius would tear him to shreds and light his remains on fire if anything were to happen to the child.

Their time in the ancient Vampire city had not been what Severus had expected. In truth as he watched Albus apparate away after basically serving him up as a sacrifice, he had been sure he wouldn’t live to see the morning light.

He had never felt as helpless as he did that night, not even in the presence of Voldemort…and worse he was forced to carry a baby…Lily’s child right along with him to meet his fate.

He couldn’t have been more shocked when they arrived at the ancient palace and instead of being led to the slaughter; Jane had led both Severus and the child to a richly decorated room.

Without a word she had turned and locked them in. He had been terrified; sitting with nothing to do but stare at the sleeping boy in his arms and wallow in his own miserable thoughts. In all honesty, he had never been more thankful for Hayden’s presence that night, without the small life depending on him, he thought he would have likely have tried to end it all right there.

But the soft gurgles and warm, talcum powdered smell of the baby boy in his arms had stopped him. And now that he had time and perspective he was thankful for his hesitation.

The next day Aro had come to him, this time accompanied by both of his brothers and told him that he had two choices; he could be turned or killed.

The look in the ancient vampire’s face stated that Aro already knew which option Severus would select. Having made it through the night of Lily’s murder and his subsequent enslavement to what most of the wizarding world thought of as monsters, he would not give up now.

He had made it through the worst night of his life, surely becoming a vampire could not compare? So he had agreed and he was turned. It had been excruciating….like all of Voldemort’s cruciatus curses being thrown at him all at once and instead of a mere few minutes, it had been days.

When the pain finally stopped, Severus had felt such a profound feeling of relief…well until he noticed just how dry and painful his throat was feeling. The Volturi were quick to provide sustenance and after he was not so distracted by the burning pain in his throat, Severus did not have all that much trouble with adjusting to his new species and the instincts that came with.

He had few moral conflictions…he had served as a death eater under Voldemort after all. At least with the mortal’s they drained, their pain was over with quickly. He had found out that his main priority would be watching and protecting Hayden….it was not a problem for him.

It seemed as though the vow he had made to Albus about protecting the boy had transferred over after his transition. It could be said that the vow had morphed and changed into his ‘gift.’ He was extremely protective of the child and could sense anytime he was in danger or hurt.

It had turned out to be a rather useful gift in ensuring his own survival, as he found out that the Volturi leaders were much more interested in Hayden then they were him. Apparently his selection to come along had been made on one of Aro’s whims, while the child’s had been thoroughly planned for.

He did not question why. He knew that Hayden was an exceptionally strong magical child but he was not sure why this mattered to the Volturi. Everyone knew that as soon as Hayden was old enough that Aro would have him turned. Severus assumed it was a combination of the boy’s political standing in the wizarding world and his strong affinity to magic that made him valuable.

Most likely Aro was hoping that some of this magic would transfer with the child when he was turned. Severus dreaded that day…if there was a chance he could save Hayden from the transition he would. But he knew it was futile to even consider such things…the guard and the leaders kept a very close eye on the boy.

It could even be said that the three Vampire Princes loved the child, although Severus was not sure that they were capable of such emotions.

He finally caught Hayden’s scent, a mix of something spicy and sweet, it rang of innocence. Hayden had after all been kept very sheltered from the going-ons of the palace’s other inhabitants. To Hayden the rest of the vampires were normal, it was he who was different.

The five year old had after all, only met one other person with soft, warm skin and non-red eyes apart from himself. And she was rather boring, just sitting behind her desk all day, not nearly as much fun as his aunt Jane or Uncle Dem.

Severus felt his dead heart sinking when he realized where Hayden’s scent was leading. It was leading towards the feeding hall….a place that the boy had purposefully been kept far away from. Not good. Not good at all.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Hayden ran as fast as his little legs could take him. He knew he shouldn’t tease Uncle Sev so much, but his uncle’s angry face was just so funny! Uncle Severus’s glares were enough to make almost anyone cower but not Hayden. It was probably because he knew his uncle would never actually hurt him.

His pace only slowed slightly as he entered the part of the sanctuary (though Harry thought it was probably just an adult word for castle…because really that was what the sanctuary looked like) that he was normally not allowed in.

He should probably turn back now…he might not fear his uncle but he didn’t want to make him TO angry….Hayden came to a stop in front of a huge set of wooden doors. Most of the doors in the Sanctuary that he wasn’t suppose to go in were always closed… but one of these doors was open. Even if it was just a wee crack.

Hayden paused a minute debating what to do, he should turn around and go back to the area of the castle he was allowed in….buuttt he was a naturally curious child. He loved all of the story books about brave knights and valiant princes (not that he knew what valiant meant) that charged off into danger regardless of their fear.

And Hayden wanted to be just like them, this coupled with his innate sense of curiosity made him peak inside the room instead of turning back like he was suppose to.

At first the sight that greeted him simply left him confused…why were all of the others standing around talking to the large group of people? And why were those people like him? Hayden might be a child but he knew that he was different from everyone else in the castle.

The others were all older than him for one, but there were other differences…their skin felt like the marble walls that made up most of the inner caste, their eyes were all red, their voices sounded pretty and they reminded him of the beautiful princes and princesses from his story books. He often wondered why he was so different from everyone else.

But when he asked Uncle Severus about it, his uncle told him not to ask stupid questions. He didn’t like it when his uncle said something mean to him so he didn’t ask again.

But he could tell that these people were the same as him. For one their skin did not look pale and hard like all of the other’s in the castle, and their eyes were different colors…like Harry’s were. He wondered what Aro and the others were saying to these people to make them look so frightened. He couldn’t quite hear.

He was about to push the door open wider so that he could sneak in or at least hear what was going on better when something happened that made him want to scream. One moment Aro and the others were talking quietly to the scared people and the next they were attacking them.

As the room turned into a slaughter house Hayden stumbled back in fear, he felt tears springing to his eyes as he heard the screams from the people. What was going on? What were the others doing to those people?

The smell of blood made Hayden want to vomit and he turn and ran with every ounce of strength he could manage to get as far away from the room as he could. Tears streamed down the five year olds face blurring his vision as he stumbled his way down one of the long marble halls.

Was it because those people were different? What did that mean for him? Was that going to happen to him too? Were the others just waiting until Hayden became too boring or made them angry? Hayden’s panicked and frenzied thoughts flitted through his head.

So panicked was the boy that he didn’t even see Severus before he ran full out into him, causing his smaller fragile body to fall back hard on the floor.

Severus took one look at the distraught child and knew what must have happened. He mentally cursed himself for not keeping a closer eye on Hayden. There was no way that the child would remain unaware of the ‘other’ activities that went on in these walls but he wasn’t supposed to find out so early, or in this manner.

Severus bent over swiftly picking up the trembling body and hugging the boy closer to him. “Shhh…its okay Hayden, I’ve got you…you’re alright” he murmured into Hayden’s silky black locks. The boy didn’t even try to protest at being picked up (something he had been doing more and more as he grew older) clinging to Severus like he was a life line.

Severus carried the boy in his arms back towards their quarters, not worrying for once about the state of his robes as Hayden’s tears soaked them. He rubbed the frightened child’s back in soothing circles.

“You’re alright my child….I won’t let anything hurt you” he whispered again as the boy finally succumbed to the emotional toll of the day and fell into an uneasy sleep.

“I promise”

**August 1, 1990**

**Volterra, Italy**

**Harry- age 11**

 

Hayden gritted his teeth against the pain; strengthening his resolve… he willed away the ache from his strained muscles and held on. Just as he felt his fingers starting to slip he heard the blessed whistle.

“Better” Jane’s lovely voice rang throughout the room, as Hayden let go in relief dropping gracefully to the floor. He wiped his hands against the pair of sweats he was wearing, grimacing slightly as the raw spots on his palms brushed against the fabric.

“Don’t listen to her love; you did marvelously” Alec purred, dancing up behind the wizard, letting his long delicate fingers trail across the boy’s aching shoulders, “ _much_ better than last time”

Harry shot the young looking vampire a thankful grin before plopping down on the floor. “Don’t get cocky” Jane snapped, though there was no real bite to her reprimand.

They had been in the training room for the past five hours and Hayden was exhausted. Jane and Alec had been tasked with helping him learn to control his latent powers. It was not unheard of, although rather unusual for someone human to demonstrate abilities before their turn. Although, no one seemed overly surprised with the fact that Hayden did.

He always had as far as he was aware. Hayden closed his eyes and leaned back against the padded wall letting his thoughts drift to something he had once overheard.

**_It was just a week after his sixth birthday and he had managed to follow Severus’s instructions well enough that he could wrap a shield around him that both muffled the sound of his heart beat as well as his smell._ **

**_Severus had been slowly teaching him how to use and control his magic ever since the disastrous event when he was five. Hayden had been a nervous wreck for weeks after, regardless of the amount of times that Aro and the rest of the guard reassured him that he would never become dinner…that he was special to them._ **

**_The only thing that seemed to help him regain any sense of security was through the use of his undeveloped magic. Severus had simply been trying to distract him with small, easy to learn tricks…such as levitating a feather. Hayden had been so delighted by this wondrous thing called magic that he had promptly forgotten about his terror of being dinner for his ‘uncle’ and the rest of the palace guard._ **

**_Aro, too had been thrilled with Hayden’s ability to do magic so early and had promptly instructed Severus to continue his lessons. It was because of these lessons that Hayden was now experimenting with his ability to sneak up on the royal guards._ **

**_It was Corrine and one of the newer guards, whom Hayden did not recognize that he chose to test his abilities on. He snuck close enough to hear the tail end of their conversation. Much to his chagrin it was about him; about him and what happened when he first arrived in Volterra to be exact._ **

**_“I don’t understand what is so special about the boy…why do they keep him?” the unknown male asked, his voice skeptical over whatever Corrine had told him prior._ **

**_“Shhh…do not speak out of turn Geon! It is a good way to end up dead” Corrine hissed back at him angrily, “the child is the kings’ favorite…you would do well to remember that fact”_ **

**_Geon looked exceptionally put out, “yes…but_** why ** _? “ he asked again ignoring her warning._**

**_“The child will be incredibly powerful…he already demonstrates great power…power beyond his magic as a wizard” Corrine stated._ **

**_Hayden’s ears perked at this statement, what was she talking about? He had no power….maybe he was wrong and they were talking about another child? The thought made his insides squirm uncomfortably; he hated the thought of Aro and his brothers loving someone other than him….even if it meant he might have another person to play with._ **

**_“Yes, the night that he and Severus arrived…the boy was barely over a year old. Aro won them in some sort of deal with the idiotic magical bloodbags… you know of Aro’s ability…yes?” Corrine paused and waited for Geon to nod his head, acknowledging that yes he knew how Aro could read your every thought and memory at one touch._ **

**_Satisfied with his answer she continued, “Well Aro went to touch the child out of curiosity I suppose….and something happened! He became completely still before falling to the floor unconscious!” she whispered her story taking on a conspiratal air._ **

**_Geon to his credit, looked appropriately horrified and awed at this information, “Why? What happened?” he asked in a whisper, unconsciously edging forward (some human instincts were harder to forget then others)._ **

**_“When Aro woke up he said that instead of seeing everything of Hayden’s young life, he was besieged with everything from his own life….all of his own secrets and all of the knowledge he had taken from others….the sudden influx of information caused his brain to overload and essentially stroke…he said that had he been mortal it would have killed him…” Corrine explained her face serious._ **

**_“B-but how? What did the boy do?” Geon asked_ **

**_“Aro believes that his ability lies in rebounding. He thinks the child can turn one’s power on its user or create the opposite effect of said power in some cases… so far his theory has proven correct…when Marcus touched the boy, instead of seeing all of the bonds that existed in the present between the guard, he saw all the bonds that no longer existed…Jane and Alec experienced the effects of their own ‘gifts’, Instead of Demetri being able to find Hayden, Hayden essentially placed a tracking device of sorts on the vampire…and the list goes on” Corrine rallied off the numerous guards who had tested their abilities against Hayden. “Even if he did not have this ability…the child is believed to be a very strong wizard, Aro would treasure him for that alone….do not mess with the child”_ **

“…try on Alec” Jane’s soft voice interrupted his reminiscing.

Hayden’s gaze shot up to the blond vampire, “Pardon?” he asked grimacing at the look of displeasure his question brought to Jane’s face. She hated being ignored.

“You have finished the physical training planned for today…why don’t you try your control by practicing on Alec?” Jane repeated a tad more coldly.

Hayden nodded quickly, not willing to further piss her off. Outside of training his reflexes and physical stamina, the twins were helping him learn better control over his ‘gift’. Caius had wanted him to be able to turn it on and off at will, rather than having it happen whenever he touched someone. He admitted he too would like this…as of now most gifted vampires (aka everyone of the Volturi) tended to avoid skin to skin contact. The only person so far that his gift did not work on was Severus.

And while he understood why, it still made him feel like even more of a freak. Not that he would ever tell them that…the last time he called himself a freak he thought Caius would skin him alive.

Hayden closed his eyes again and tried to concentrate on his core just like Severus instructed him to when he was doing magic. Essentially controlling his other gift should work in a similar manner. Severus had theorized that he had two twisted cores instead of one.

One dedicated to his wizarding magic, and one dedicated to his ability…Severus stated that the reason most wizards lost their magic when they were turned was because their magical core either transitioned to give them a gift or was consumed with the vampire venom. All in all, not a pleasant experience.

He believed that for whatever reason some muggles were born with a different type of core that allowed for a gift to manifest early, when they were changed it usually strengthened.

Whatever the reason for his gift, Hayden did not care. He just wanted to be able to control it. He concentrated on his breathing while continuing to delve into where he felt his magical core. Reassured by the brilliant green pulsing light that he found, he slowly stretched his mental fingers trying to locate something else.

It might have been seconds, minutes or hours he wasn’t sure…but finally; finally he came upon a brilliant gold thread which had wrapped itself around the larger green cylindrical light. He gave a mental gasp of astonishment… he had found it!

Unfortunately his excitement over finding his second core caused him to lose focus and therefore let the location and feel of the second core slip away from him. His mind slowly emerged from its meditative state coming back to the present.

Jane was clapping gleefully, “You did it Haddie! Well sort of….for about a second or so….but still! Alec did not feel his gift for a moment” she exclaimed giggling in a rather un-Jane like manner.

Hayden didn’t even try to smother his proud grin. Sure he still had eons to go before he could claim control, but at least it was a start…and if it got Jane to act her body’s physical age for once he knew it had to be big.

“Why don’t you go and tell Aro, Marcus and Caius? They are in the library…I’m sure they will be delighted with your progress” Alec suggested softly, his voice as soothing as ever.

Hayden grinned at the twins before nodding his agreement and all but skipping out of the training room to head towards the library. If Severus was like an Uncle to him, then the three Vampire Kings each held their own places in his life.

Aro, was like a father to him…a rather demanding and ambitious father but one he loved none the less. Caius, while cruel at times was incredibly protective and possessive over him, if anything he was like what he imagined a god father would be. Indulgent with Hayden, while vicious to anyone he saw as a threat to the pre-teen.

Finally Marcus acted as a grandfather towards the raven haired wizard, kind and patient. He was the calming factor of the three. The older vampire had an air of wisdom about him that one associated with age (even if he was technically the same age as his two brothers…Hayden thought the grief of losing his mate offered him the distant perspective that Aro and Caius lacked).

Hayden slowed his pace as he approached the huge library….he couldn’t even fathom a guess at the number of books, not to mention rare tombs that were stored in the circular room.

When he arrived in the room the three brothers seemed to be in a deep discussion. Deep enough that Marcus did not hide the letter that he was holding before Hayden managed to read the outside of the envelope.

In Green elegant cursive it read:

Harry Potter,

Volturi Palace, prince’s chambers.

 

Hayden’s eyes widened at the sight….who in the world would be writing to him, and using his birth name? (One that Aro claimed was far too common for him…hence Hayden).

“What is that?” He asked curious.

“Ahhh…my childe, you are here…that is nothing to concern yourself with…now how did your lesson go?” Aro redirected his question.

Still young, Hayden fell for it and immediately started his exuberant sharing of his latest lesson and progress. It was not until later, shortly before he fell asleep that night, that he realized that Aro had never answered his question.

He sighed to himself and placed it amongst the many other things that he would not get an answer too…

It was the price he paid, living amongst the merchants of manipulation.

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**April 25, 1995**

**Volterra, Italy**

**Harry- age 14**

 

Hayden made sure that he was carefully pressed up against the wall, keeping his face hidden under the large hood and his body concealed in the darkened alley way. He could not help but thrill at being outside the palace gates for once.

He felt the cold, constant drizzle slowly soaking through the thick red Volturi cape he was wearing but shrugged the discomfort off as unimportant. He was not about to complain about something as insignificant as being cold to Jane or Alec. Not when they were risking so much to allow him a brief moment of freedom.

He could not help but be fascinated with the sight in front of him. Despite the rain and cold weather, Volterra was swamped with tourists and locals alike. It was St. Marcus’s day after all (or rather St. Mark’s but time and habit had changed the name) and as tradition demanded, people flocked to pay their respects to the saint that rid the town of evil.

For Hayden it was the first time he had ever witnessed the festivities. Usually Caius, Aro and Marcus were far too protective of him to allow him to commune with the local population. It was as if they feared that if they allowed him out of the gated sanctuary, that he would fail to return. Hayden for one thought that they were being ridiculous.

Then again they were often a tad neurotic when it came to him. When he was ten, he had wandered across a visiting coven and one of the members had made the mistake of believing Hayden to be just another mortal who was there to serve as substance to the Volturi guard. He foolishly decided that he too would like a bite before meeting with the royals.

Safe to say he never got that bite…or any other for that matter. After that day Aro made it clear to the guard that should Hayden be attacked again inside the palace walls that not only would the perpetrator meet their death but the guard assigned to the boy who failed to prevent it would join them in their demise.

The amount of protection and number of smothering restrictions Hayden was under had tripled after that day… much to the teens chagrin. It was to the point that he left the restrictive compound perhaps once a year if he was lucky and only then with a large entourage of guards.

Why the Volturi heads felt that he needed this amount of protection was beyond him. Severus had stated it was because they had started to see him as a son of their own, rather than just another acquisition… though by the tone he said it in, made Hayden wonder if that was a good thing or not.

So far be it for him to complain now that he had finally convinced the twins to sneak him out with them to observe the festivities. He could not help but wonder what the lives of the people they were watching were like. What did they do on a day to day basis? Where they happy? Did they feel lonely or were they content and loved?

He could not help but feel slightly jealous at the freedom they appeared to have. As much as he loved the guard and everyone inside the palace, he could not help but wonder what he would do and where he would go if he was allowed.

But, that was not to be. He had to content himself by living vicariously through the books and stories he could convince Chelsea to bring him (Aro and his brothers did not approve of his fascination with mortal fantasy).

He was not sure for how long they stood in the rain quietly observing the people around them. But all too soon Jane touched his now soaked through shoulder and stated in her calm, musical voice “It is time to head back Haddie, we do not want the other’s to notice you are missing”

Hayden sighed but nodded reluctantly, what she said was true if anyone outside the twins realized that he managed to leave the gates unnoticed (even if it was only through the help of the twins) his guard would double yet again. “Ok, lead the way princesa”

Jane grimaced at the use of his favorite nickname but otherwise ignored him. Alec who was a surprisingly cheerful and bubbly vampire skipped up next to Hayden and playfully bumped his shoulder. “Should we pick up a souvenir or two?” he asked leering at a group of dithering college girls not far from them.

Hayden rolled his eyes at Alex’s terrible attempt at humor, “I didn’t know that was your type lexxie” he teased raising an eyebrow.

“ohh….it’s not” Alec agreed trolling his eyes up and down the teen suggestively.

Jane sighed in irritation, “oh grow up” she stated and at Hayden’s gleeful snicker she added, “Both of you.”

This time it was Alec’s turn to smirk. “Plus brother dearest just think what Aro would say should he find you coveting our dear Haddie” she stated smiling smugly at the horrified expression on her brother’s face. “That’s what I thought”

The trio fell silent as they carefully maneuvered through one of the many tunnels entering the hidden palace. It was one of the lesser used ones and they were relatively confidant that it should remain empty…especially today, with most of the guard getting ready for another feeding. Only the twins were excused from the bloodbath, since they were supposed to be guarding Hayden and making sure he stayed out of trouble.

Once they were all back inside, Hayden retreated to his rooms and made short work of his soaked robes sinking thankfully into a steaming bath. He was glad that he had today off from his usual training; it was nice to not have to learn something new for a day.

He had long ago perfected control over his gift and had been working more and more with Severus to increase and master his wizarding magic. At Aro’s insistence he had continued learning it wandlessly, since Severus had hypothesized that this would make his magic stronger then if he had learned using the typical wizarding wand.

While Severus could no longer use magic; he still had an extremely large knowledge of the theory and spells that he had used as a wizard.

Along with his wandless magic training, he was now spending several hours a day sparring with Jane, Alec or Felix and while he could not win against the supernatural creatures, he was more then proficient at defending himself against anyone who was not a vampire.

He had wondered from time to time just who they were training him to defend himself against.

But once again it was just another question that was met with resounding silence.

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**June 26, 1995**

**Volterra, Italy**

Severus entered the throne room with a small amount of trepidation. It was not every day that one was called before the Volturi leaders and for the life of him he could not think of why he might be.

“My lords” he stated with a brief bow of his head, he had always found this addressment eerily similar to the one that the dark lord had demanded of his followers.

“Ahhh…Severus, so glad that you could join us” Aro crooned in his usual high soprano.

“May I enquire to what I owe this pleasure?” Severus asked with guarded curiosity.

“We have heard some troubling rumors from the wizarding world” Caius stated glaring ominously at the wall in front of him.

Severus felt his eyebrow rise in surprise, “about what?” he asked.

“There are rumors that Voldemort has returned” Markus stated in his usual dull, weary voice.

Severus gaped in shock, “but…how? I thought that he was dead?” he asked, he was sure if he were still human his voice would have shook.

“Apparently not as dead as everyone was led to believe….this will mean trouble for our little Hayden as I am sure you are aware” Aro answered the young vampires question, this time his voice had a note of seriousness about it.

“They will come for him” Severus stated it not as a question but a surety.

“Yes, when the rest of the idiotic magic wielders realize that the Dark lord has returned they will try and force us to return their savior to them. I would guess when they find out they might still need him, they will not give him up so easily” Caius snorted derisively.

“But the contract?” Severus asked

“While the contract is still in effect, it has essentially already been fulfilled. They gave you and Hayden to us all those years ago so technically they have been true to their word. Unfortunately, nowhere in the contract did it say that you must both remain with us…you who are now a vampire will hold little interest to them, but Hayden who is still mortal and their savior will no doubt be someone they would be incredibly interested in getting back. I have no doubt that they wish to use him to defeat Voldemort once again and will toss him aside when he has finished” Aro explained.

If Severus could have paled he would have, “We cannot allow that to happen” he stated vehemently momentarily forgetting just who he was speaking too.

The three vampires in front of him chose to ignore his impertinence for the moment.

Caius turned so that he was finally facing Severus, a look of pure hatred on his face,

“If they want him they will have more than one war on their hands”.

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**July 30, 1996**

**11pm**

**Volterra, Italy**

**Harry- age 15 (almost 16)**

 

Hayden forced his face to remain blank, even with his occlumency shields at their highest he could not hide the slight shaking of his hands. The truth of the matter was he was a nervous wreck. He had two hours left…just two hours left of what he could call his mortal existence.

Oh, sure technically he wouldn’t be dying per say…well whatever allowed him to think wouldn’t be dying even though his body would be. But he wouldn’t be the same. He was not stupid, he had been living with the Volturi long enough to have witnessed just what was involved with the ‘turning’ process.

There would be pain…lots of pain. And while he wasn’t exactly looking forward to the pain, it wasn’t what truly scared him. What scared him was the thought of losing his mind.

Not literally of course, but he had seen what newborn vampires where like…he had seen their lack of control, the want…no _need_ for blood regardless of the consequences of getting it. The empty black eyes that spoke of a complete void of intelligent thought process.

Severus and the others had reassured him that this blind blood lust would not last for long, it might not even happen. In Severus’s case his gift…the promise to care for Hayden no matter what, had taken precedent over the insanity of being a new vampire. Despite their reassurances, Hayden somehow doubted that this would be the case for him.

And as much as the mindless bloodlust terrified the teen, there was something he feared worse. And this fear was what was currently plaguing his thoughts.

What if his magic did not translate when he was turned? What if his gift was no longer present? For as long as he could recall these were the things that made him special in the eyes of the Volturi Kings. These attributes were the reason that he did not end up just another soon-to-be dead mortal….would they still want him if he didn’t have these things?

The thought of being tossed aside or abandoned terrified him. Sure, there were times while living in the palace that he was lonely…lonely for another being such as himself, someone his age and maturity. But he was never truly alone.

Jane and Alec where there, Severus, Demetri, Felix….the three kings…what if after he was turned he was just another ungifted vampire. There were no vampires in the Volturi guard who did not possess a talent of some sort…would they send him away?

Losing his magic was a huge possibility…he had never met a wizard turned vampire that had managed to keep it after they turned.

So, yes he was terrified.

He was interrupted from his morose thoughts by a sharp knock on the door; he barely managed to croak out a “come in.”

The doors swung open to reveal Severus waiting for him, the young vampire’s face was full of despair. Hayden knew how much Severus lamented his own loss of magic. A horrific thought crossed his mind, would Severus hate him if Hayden had no magic? He wanted to belief he wouldn’t, but deep within his own insecurities he could not help but fear it.

“It’s time” Severus stated his voice flat, devoid of all emotion.

Hayden swallowed dryly and shakily stood up, “W-who?” he croaked out too scared to be embarrassed over his wavering voice.

“Caius…in case you can’t control your gift while in the presence of something your subconscious sees as a threat” Severus answered

Hayden nodded his understanding and squared his shoulders despite the nausea that was threatening to take over him.

It was time.  


	3. When plans go amuck

** Chapter two: When Plan’s go amuck  **

[ _Yesterday_ _is a history, today is only ours, tomorrow still unknown and is full of uncertainty. Live now and use yesterday to construct a beautiful tomorrow._ ](http://www.searchquotes.com/quotation/Yesterday_is_a_history%2C_today_is_only_ours%2C_tomorrow_still_unknown_and_is_full_of_uncertainty._Live_/651824/)

**August 7, 1995**

**Volterra, Italy**

**Harry- age 16**

 

All Hayden was aware of was overwhelming pain, it coursed through his small frame burning and fraying every nerve in its path. He had thought that he was more or less prepared for the pain side of the transition; after all he had been training for years with some of the rather more morally dubious and sadistic vampires.

His mind was almost unable to process the sheer amount of agony he was experiencing, but instead of being granted the relief of passing out, he remained cruelly aware.

Time took on a whole new meaning and while he knew the process normally lasted only three days at most, he was sure that he had been caught in this world of red for at least a century or so.

It was only when the pain started to recede that he realized that something had not gone as planned. Instead of the pain increasing steadily until it attacked his heart and abruptly cut off (which was to be expected during a vampire transformation), it was slowly starting to recede in tiny intervals.

It was only after the pain had started to break, that Hayden became aware of the melodious, air soft voices of the Volturi leaders and Severus near-by.

“What is the matter with him? He should have completed the process four days ago….it is not suppose to last this long!” Caius hissed angrily, his tone sounding tight and stressed.

“I don’t know…” Severus stated pausing as if unsure whether or not to go on, “his body is not responding the way it should…It went through the normal calcification process during the first three days but now it has started to revert to its former state” he trailed of his voice full of confusion.

“Stop talking in circles and state what you mean Severus” Caius ordered

“What I mean your lord, is that he seems to be rejecting the transformation… that he is remaining essentially human”

“Human? Curious” Aro stated sounding intrigued, Hayden could feel a cold finger tracing along the edge of his jaw but was still too overwhelmed with the lingering dredges of pain to react.

“Yes…though I am not sure that is the correct term…at least not anymore” Severus replied answering the vampires unasked question, “…in truth I am not entirely sure what he is anymore…his body is still breakable like a human’s would be and his heart is till beating… but it’s much slower than it should be…whether this is because it is still fighting the vampire venom or it is a permanent change I am not certain.”

“His smell is much stronger as well” Markus finally contributed in a matter of fact way.

“Interesting, and what are those m…” Aro started to say, but Hayden gave up on following the conversation at that point as the pain surged once more.

And then suddenly he could feel the blissful relief of unconsciousness creeping up on him and after the constant pain he had been in he didn’t even try to fight it.

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The next time he became aware there was a significant decrease in discomfort. This allowed him to concentrate more on what was going on around him, not to mention allowing him to try and figure out just where he was.

There was still pain, which was odd because he should have either been writhing in pain or not feeling it at all. Instead it felt as though he had undergone a particularly harsh physical training session with Felix that had left his bones and muscles aching from the strain.

He let out a soft groan of discomfort as he slowly opened his eyes. He was no longer in the ritual chamber (a rather morbidly decorated room that the Volturi used to turn prospective members) but was laying his rather large bed. (Being he was the only one who actually slept, Aro had spared no expensive on getting him the best).

It took a few moments for him to sort through the memories of overwhelming pain and agony, to latch onto the brief conversation he had overheard… but when he did, he bolted up. Instantly regretting doing so as a whole new wave of tiredness swamped him.

He closed his eyes for a moment, forcing himself to take a steady breath and waited for the brief dizziness to pass. After his ears stopped ringing, he once again opened his eyes this time to take a look at his own form.

He didn’t know whether to be relieved or scared that his body was still very similar to what it had been before the transformation. While he could not help but be glad that he was not experiencing a burning in his throat and an overwhelming desire to rip something (and by something he means, someone) apart, he didn’t know what this meant for him on a whole.

It was obvious that the transformation had failed, at least to some degree. He could feel his heart beating away in his chest, and while his eye-sight and hearing seemed to have improved marginally, they were not at a vampiric level, that and the whole urge to drink blood seemed absent.

He saw drawing with some relief from it, that they had left his ring in place. While the weird ring that he had worn ever since he had found it hidden away in one of the stone crevices in the city ten years ago was nothing overly special…it reminded him of freedom and adventure and for that reason alone he had grown rather attached to the ugly thing. It had even survived being accidently dropped in an acid potion he had been practicing with Severus’s supervision (although while it looked the same after it felt slightly different).

He paused when his eyes fell on his torso…well that was something different…

The whole side of his right flank was decorated in what appeared to be black and dark green cursive writing. The words that decorated his side however where not in any language that Hayden recognized (then again it was rather hard to read considering he had to look down at it).

That was definitely not normal…he had never heard of a transformation resulting in ink.

He was pulled from his perusal by the sound of someone entering the room. So his hearing had definitely improved… he knew that before he would never have heard Severus’s entry.

“Ahhh…you are finally awake” the vampire stated in his usual derisive tone.

“w-what’s wrong with me?” Hayden asked uncertainly cutting right to the chase. He needed answers; he was not sure what was going to happen to him now.

“In all honesty child we are not sure…It would appear that you have rejected the transformation….tell me how are you feeling?” Severus answered carefully while swiftly approaching the prone teen.

“I feel like I got run over by a Felix” Hayden stated, grimacing slightly as Severus’s long cold fingers started to poke and prod him.

“And thirst? Your senses?” Severus continued his questioning.

“Non-existent, I have no desire for blood…I-I think my sight, smell and hearing have improved somewhat, however” Hayden replied concentrating on each sense as he listed them. He scrunched his nose slightly… yes, his smell had definitely improved…he would never have been able to state that Severus had a slightly sweet, musky smell to him before.

“hmmm….” Severus replied finally stopping his examination and taking a step back.

“What?” Hayden asked sensing that Severus was still holding back information from him.

“Nothing big, you appear to be in perfect health….for a human anyway…you smell similar to how you always have, but you no longer smell like a possible food source…” Severus trailed of looking perplexed.

Hayden managed a weak laugh, “um…thanks?” he stated before deciding to ask about the new markings he had received, “what about these? What do they mean?” he asked gesturing down at his tattooed side.

Severus paused and examined them closer, even though he had done so multiple times while Hayden was unconscious, “I do not know…they appear to be ritualistic in nature, there are even some runes involved…. This one here is known as Ihwaz (or Eihwaz) it has many meanings but the best known one means venture from death, or freedom from death…” Severus explained falling back into teacher mode.

He had told Hayden that before he had come to Volturi, he used to teach potions at a school for other people with magic. He had always maintained that he hated teaching the dunderheaded students, but Hayden could see past his proclamations to know that he actually missed his previous employment.

Hayden nodded to show he was listening, “What about this one?” he asked pointing to one that was shaped like an ill-supported archway.

“That one is Uruz…it means strength and vitalty…why they are now etched into your side I do not know”

Hayden nodded before sighing and sinking back so that he was once again lying amongst the masses of pillows and blankets on the bed, “so what does this mean then? When do I need to be gone by?” he asked dully.

As much as he wanted his freedom and space at times, he could not bare to think about losing the only family he had ever known, regardless of how different and dysfunctional they might be.

“Be gone? What are you talking about child?” Severus asked

“Well the transformation obviously failed…since it failed once, I can only assume that it will continue to do so…as far as I am aware Aro does not accept anyone who does not have the potential to join his guard inside the sanctuary walls…so I assume I will be told to leave….or…” Hayden was suddenly struck with a horrid thought. What if they did not let him leave but just disposed of him now that he was of no use? He swallowed convulsively trying to calm his panicked thoughts.

Severus just stared at him, “You really think that Aro and the others will cast you aside so easily Hayden?” he asked in disbelief.

Hayden paused in his minor freak out, brows furrowing in confusion “er…yes?” he stated.

“And here I thought you were slowly growing out of your stupidity” Severus stated appearing annoyed.

Hayden just stared back at him in confusion. He didn’t understand what the vampire trying to say, the Volturi only had use for those that were of use to them…

“Even if you had lost your gift and magic in the transition I doubt that Aro and the others would throw you away Hayden…perhaps at one time…but I do not think that is the case any longer” Severus explained patiently sighing in a human like motion when Hayden still seemed to distrust his words.

“Perform some magic then…” he instructed, “does not matter what”

Hayden still looked uncertain but did what he was instructed, he was both surprised and relieved to see that he could indeed still cast a lumos spell. In fact the spell seemed to be even stronger than it had before.

“..so you see even if Caius would allow Aro to toss you aside…which I am very much doubtful of, you still posses your magic and therefore will still be of use…I imagine you still have your ability as well. We can test that out later…after you have gotten more rest” Severus stated the last in a tone that broke no argument.

Hayden nodded deciding not to argue with the vampire, plus he still felt bone tired…he was not all that against getting a little more sleep.

“Night Severus” he stated closing his eyes wearily.

He fell asleep almost instantly, missing the rare look of tenderness on Severus’s face as he carded his long fingers through Hayden’s ebony locks.

“Good night childe…sleep, I will watch over you”

**July 31, 2004**

**Volterra, Italy**

**Harry- physical age 16, actual age (25)**

 

It had been nine years since Hayden’s failed turning, and he should have technically been 25 years old by now. Technically, because although his mind might have reached the age of a young adult his body hadn’t aged a day since his sixteenth birthday.

They didn’t know why, it was just another oddity that was Hayden. They had determined that he was definitely not a vampire; while he did have enhanced senses, and was slightly stronger and faster than a normal human he was nowhere near the almost indestructible level of a turned vampire.

He also had his magic along with his gifts, and while he would probably have held onto the second had he turned, the first was unlikely. After the failed turning, Severus, Keirzen (who had the ability to find information, whether on another vampire or a random subject) and he had spent most of the next year searching for answers as to what he now was.

They had failed to find anything that could explain it. So, after a time they had given up and life had resumed as normal. Well, relatively normal.

Aro and his brothers had continued to be annoyingly overprotective and smothering of him, though they had relaxed a bit after his twenty second birthday had passed and there was still no physical change to his body. This seemed to suggest that he had stopped physically aging, which was a relief to everyone but Hayden.

He was not sure he wanted to remain frozen at ‘sixteen’ forever. It had been one of the things he had been dreading about becoming a vampire…not that there was much he could do about it now.

At least given evidence that he was not quite as vulnerable to death as they had feared, they had started to allow him to venture outside the sanctuary more often (even if it was still with supervision), and had even stated to allow him to attend more of their ‘meetings’.

At first Aro was hesitant to allow him to join the rest of the guard in the meet and greets and disciplinary hearings of other vampire covens, but after no small amount of begging on Hayden’s part coupled with the twin’s insistence that they would stay close to him, Aro had relented.

While Hayden didn’t necessarily approve of how the Volturi disposed of their law breakers…at least it provided some distraction to the everyday monotony. He knew he was slightly depressed and although he tried his best to hide his growing lethargy of life, he knew Severus had picked up on it.

Probably because Severus too was not entirely happy here. Oh, he knew the young vampire was more comfortable here then he had been during his human existence. And he knew Severus found pleasure in mothering him but the man still fell into bouts of somber silence.

Hayden knew that like him Severus was a tad lonely. While most of the guard could bypass the need for companionship or finding their mates because of the bonds they had to their leaders, this did not apply to either of the former wizards.

Hayden because he was so different from the others and while he loved them, he felt like he was missing something. And Severus because his bond to Hayden…when the boy was dissatisfied, his gift reacted and in consequence left him feeling the same way.  

Severus had finally told Hayden his whole story, explaining about the wizarding world and Hayden’s place in it as their savior. Hayden, for one thought that wizards were incredibly stupid to coin a mere baby with that title.

It was only two years after Hayden’s sixteenth birthday that news had arrived from the Wizarding world. They learned that the second rise of Voldemort was finally over, that a boy named Neville Longbottom had killed the Dark Lord once and for all. The wizarding world rejoiced over their new found freedom.

Even if a mere boy of eighteen had sacrificed his life to give it to them.

****


	4. View from afar

** Chapter three: View from afar  **

[ _Loneliness_ _is and always has been the central and inevitable experience of every man._ ](http://www.searchquotes.com/quotation/Loneliness_is_and_always_has_been_the_central_and_inevitable_experience_of_every_man./231645/)

**April 25, 2006**

**Volterra, Italy**

**Harry- age 16: actual age 26**

Severus braced himself for what he was about to learn as he knocked on the library door softly. To those outside the Volturi ranks it was commonly thought that the throne room was where the major decisions and powers plays took place. It was however, a misconception….anyone on the inside knew that it was the in library that the real politics happened.

He had no reason for the foreboding feeling that was lingering in his dead chest… but something told him that whatever topic was that the Volturi Leaders had called him here to discuss it was not a happy one. Never the less Severus was not a man to shy away from risk and danger….that and he was pretty sure he hadn’t done anything (actively anyhow) to piss of the kings lately.

“Come in” Markus’s soft voice instructed and Severus wasted no time in obeying.

Like most evenings the three brothers were seated in hard back chairs placed around a circular table a few feet from the fireplace. Severus had always gotten amusement out of the fact that the leaders who were so paranoid over attacks and their continued safety would readily sit mere feet from the one element that could destroy them.

The three brothers looked as if they were having a deep conversation; from the snippets that Severus was able to catch it was something to do with a suicidal mind reader. He shrugged it off…it wasn’t his business; he had no doubt that Aro would try and secure this vampire’s loyalties rather than killing him. Aro did love his collection after all.

“Severus…please join us” Aro instructed gesturing to a fourth chair to his side (all of the furnishing within the fortress were priceless, something that was easy to forget when they were treated with in such a dismissive way).

Severus did as instructed feeling a weird sense of déjà vu. He vividly recalled a conversation of a similar tone that had taken place twelve years ago. He shook his head at this thought. Their worries before had come to nothing…the wizards had thankfully (well for Severus and the leaders) decided to use another poor child to clean up their mess.

The Longbottom heir had eventually done what they demanded of him…even if he had died doing so. But he had gotten rid of Voldemort, so surely Severus was only being paranoid over the feeling in his gut now?    

Aro sighed heavily, mimicking the human reaction of regret before cutting to the chase. Something that the elderly vampire was not known for…which just heightened Severus’s unease.

“There is once again concerning news from the wizarding world Severus….” Aro began much gloomier then was normal.

Severus felt as though the other shoe was about to drop, “Oh?”

“Yes, there is rumbling about a new Dark lord who is gaining strength and followers at a rather alarming pace” Aro continued.

Severus wanted to bash his head against something hard…preferably close by. He had long since written off the wizarding world as incompetent sheep. This only proved it…to already be on the verge of yet another insurrection could only mean that nothing had changed after the down fall of Voldemort.

There was a reason that Voldemort had been able to gain such power after all…and apparently the idiotic ministry and ‘light’ side had done little to fix the underlying issues that had granted him such power.

“You think that this time they will come for Hayden?” Severus asked after a long minute of silence.

Caius sneered, “Yes, last time they had that other boy to use as a shield, now that he is dead along with their beloved Headmaster they will need someone new to ensure their survival. Who better then the babe that already gave them more than a decade of peace?”

“Will you tell him?” Severus asked genuinely curious for their answers. As much responsibility as they had given their ‘son’ they were still rather overprotective of the enigmatic child (for at twenty six years of existence he was still very much a child in Volturi terms).

“Perhaps….not yet though….I was informed by a source that they were planning on sending a wizard to try and broker another deal…” Aro stated

“A-and will you deal?” Severus asked praying that the answer was no.

He did not want to see Hayden once again being used by a race that was too stupid to fight their own battles. Oh, he knew that the Volturi could be just as bad in using people…but at least they genuinely cared for the child and would sooner burn an entire city to its foundations then see Hayden hurt.

“Of course not!” Caius snapped looking angry that Severus had even suggested it. Severus could not help but feel marginally reassured.

Aro let out another human like sigh, “We will of course refuse…but I have the feeling that they will try to take him regardless of our answer…perhaps not right away but eventually…. We are strong enough to defend ourselves but magic can still hurt us…”

“What is it that you are suggesting?” Severus asked reading in-between the lines.

“I am not sure as of yet…but it might be wise to hide Hayden away for a time…” Aro answered.

Severus nodded looking grim, “He will hate that” he stated matter of factly.

“Yes…the child has more pride then is good for him…” Caius said stonily.

“True….he will not be happy to leave and go into hiding….unless….” Aro paused looking as if a new idea had just come to him.

“Unless?” Severus asked when it seemed as if the Volturi king wasn’t going to finish his thought.

“…unless it’s his idea to begin with” Aro answered smirking gleefully.

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Hayden shuffled (okay so he actually walked rather gracefully, as Alec and Jane would allow for little else…but in his mind he shuffled) into the throne room with the rest of the guard.

It was suppose to be just another disciplinary gathering…or something to that effect, but this one had the potential to be a tad more exciting than most of the rip and tears he had paid witness too.

Jane had told him why they were meeting in full court for one vampire but in truth he had stopped listening after she said the words ‘vegetarian vampire’. The gist of what he had gotten from her was it had something to do with a vegetarian vampire who was trying to break laws so that they would kill him.

He wondered if it was the vegetarian diet that made the vampire suicidal.

While he did not crave or need blood to survive, he could not imagine any of the others trying to live off of deer and rabbits….there was something rather wrong with the picture (although he did get a few short minutes of amusement imaging hulky Felix nibbling away on a squirrel).

He didn’t know when his view on human life had started to shift….before his turning he was rather nauseated by the fact that most of his adoptive family killed humans to survive. In the years since then however, he found he just couldn’t work up the same aversion.

It wasn’t as though he hated humans and couldn’t wait for them to die…for he didn’t. It was more that he really did not care one way or another…in fact he found himself more horrified at the idea of the suicidal vampire munching on Bambi.

Bambi was much cuter then the neighborhood postman.

Either way he couldn’t understand why such a powerful being would want to deny its nature and simply survive (because a vampire could survive but not truly live) on animal blood. So for these reasons he was actually looking forward to meeting this anomaly.

At least it would distract him from the mind-numbing boredom he had been feeling lately. If he was being honest it was more than boredom that had been plaguing him these last few years….he was lonely. And it was a loneliness that only seemed to grow with each year.

He yearned for a change to his routine schedule…he wanted to go out and experience people his age and do things that he had missed out on, having grown up with more than a hundred vampires. He had been hunting for a reason to persuade Aro into allowing him sometime away from Volterra.

He had yet to find one.

He sighed mentally to himself while he went over to his usual place and sat down on the steps near the three brother’s thrones.

The Volturi leaders often contradicted themselves when it came to him. Half the time they were painfully overprotective and smothering towards him…hiding him away like he was some helpless maiden. While the rest of the time they wanted him in plain view when outside covens visited (they say visited but often it was not by the choice of said coven), as though to show off just how powerful he was.

As of lately it had been the latter…not that Hayden minded this...he preferred it too being secreted away somewhere.

Hayden was pulled out of his thoughts as the sounds of the massive front doors were pushed open. He watched with mild interest as Jane, Demetri and Felix escorted what appeared to be two vampires and a mortal girl inside the hall.

Hayden observed the strange trio closely; the tall bronze haired vampire was shadowing the plain girl closely…almost…protectively? While the petite female vampire seemed to be flittering in one place, her gaze nervously darting from the couple beside her (because obviously they were some sort of bizarre couple) to where Aro sat smiling a greedy smile.

Hayden straightened up marginally to mirror his increased interest. It seemed as though this meeting just might serve as a worthwhile distraction.

At least for a little while.

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Now that the numbness that had been plaguing her for the last several months was replaced by something else entirely…she found herself missing that detached feeling. It was much better then what she was feeling now…

Her very human heart pounded frantically in her painfully fragile chest and acid churned in her gut threatening to make an appearance. She had never been more terrified in her life. Even when James was torturing her she hadn’t felt this degree of fear.

For the first time in their relationship Bella regretted ever having set eyes on Edward Cullen. It was bad enough that he had metaphorically crushed her heart by leaving her alone earlier this year but now because of him her delicate human heart might just be crushed literally as well.

She still loved him…desperately in fact… far more then was possibly healthy for any relationship…but now that this thing in-between them could possibly result in not only her own demise but Edward’s and Alice’s as well she just didn’t know if she could keep doing this.

Not that there was much chance of them getting out of here alive regardless….

She chose to focus on their surroundings in hopes of holding her rising panic at bay. Never before had she been quite so aware of how very dangerous vampires were. With the Cullen’s it was so easy to forget…they seemed more like an incredibly beautiful Brady bunch…well, one that did not eat that is.

But there was no denying the danger that t _hese_ vampires posed…their red eyes said that much at least. She scanned the room’s occupants, edging closer to the illusionary safety that Edward’s chest offered.

The three vampires that had shepherded them here had moved to join the rest of the ranks. They stood in a loose semi circle starting from one end of the massive room, curling behind their three ‘guests’ before ending on the opposite side.

Bella took in the three vampires who were seated comfortably in what appeared to be three thrones several feet in front of her. They did not look like any of the other vampires she had ever seen, they seemed somehow more fragile…elderly. Not that she was stupid enough to let that fool her…they were obviously the ones holding the power.

What both confused her was the presence of another boy, casually seated on the stone steps leading up to the thrones his posture and expression emanating the bored looking ancient vampire behind him.

It wasn’t the fact that the boy (who looked younger then she was) was seated so closely to the Volturi Leaders that was surprising…it was the fact that he appeared to be human. An incredibly beautiful human, but human none the less.

Was he there to serve as a snack? She wondered in horror…she was not sure if she could stomach watching the vampires around her drain the beautiful teen. She dismissed this thought for he looked far too comfortable with in their presence for her to believe he was afraid for his life.

Then again Gianna the human secretary out front, was apparently willingly risking her existence in hopes of being turned by these monsters….could it be true for the teen as well? She shuddered at the thought instead focusing on inspecting how the teen looked.

He was small, nearly as short as she was and just as lean if not more so then herself. It was clear though that rather consisting of just skin and bone, his frame was made up of lithe wiry muscle. His skin was nearly as pale as the vampires surrounding them, and just as flawless.

What made him exceptional outside of the long silky black hair that was tied back, his high cheekbones and full lips… were his eyes. Instead of the bloody red color that the Volturi sported his were the most vivid shade of green she had ever seen.

It made it seem as though he was staring straight through your soul, it was more than a little un-nerving.

Bella chanced a glance over at her boyfriend (?) to see that he was just as intrigued by the teen’s presence if the intensity of his staring was anything to go by. The teen in question didn’t seem to be put off by their gawking, seemingly impervious to it.

“Jane, dear one you’ve returned”* one of the ancient looking vampires crooned standing up from where he had been sitting.

The beautiful teen went to rise with him but stopped when the vampire placed a hand on the boy’s delicate looking shoulder. The teen immediately stopped, settling back down all while continuing to watch the proceedings with mild interest.

Bella saw Jane send the teen a small smirk and swore she winked, but decided it was just the stress causing her to imagine things. She fought back a shudder when the ancient vampire floated down towards Jane and gave her a light kiss on her cheek** as a parent would to a child.

“Yes Master, I brought him back alive…just as you wished*” she replied smiling lovingly at the ancient being in front of her. Bella for one thought that the look was very much out of place on the sadistic vampires face.

She had to hide her surprise when she saw the teen roll his eyes at the interaction looking bemused. She couldn’t understand his blasé attitude towards the monsters in front of him. Surely he knew that they killed and drained innocent people?

The next several minutes passed in a blur. Everything wove together in a tight tapestry of fear. Bella thought she would possibly shatter when Jane turned her formidable gifts on Edward.

Bella was far to relieved when Jane stopped whatever she was doing to him to care overly much that the blond’s gift did not seem to work on her.

“How curious…” Aro murmured when there was no reaction to Jane’s pain curse. He cocked his head as if trying to figure out a troublesome puzzle, and without turning away from the trio in front of him he added, “Hayden, love….will you?”

Edward and Alice stiffened as the beautiful teen gracefully rose from his seat position and walked towards where Bella was standing. Edward had an odd mix of frustration and fear on his perfect features.

The teen, Hayden was what Aro called him, gave her a warm smile…although it didn’t quite reach his eyes before offering her his hand, “May I?” he asked in musical lilting voice. Bella could just make out a slight accent.

Warily she reached out to take his smaller hand expecting nothing to happen. She let out a startled gasp when they touched…it felt as though she was being pressed in by some invisible force. It was like she was being slowly crushed. She was just barely aware of Edward’s furious snarl nearby.

And then just as suddenly as the pressure started it was gone. Hayden had taken a step back and was staring expectantly at Aro his expression patient.

Aro gave a laugh of delight, “Wonderful! Wonderful…my dear you never fail” he crooned raising a papery looking hand to cup the teen’s cheek.

Caius looked annoyed by his brother’s antics, “Aro!” he reprimanded sharply.

Aro sighed disappointedly, “Calm yourself brother…Hayden…” he trailed of speaking some unvoiced command.

Hayden rolled his eyes but swiftly moved back so that he was seated, leaning against Caius’s throne, where the caustic vampire placed a possessive hand on the teen’s shoulder.

“Let us be done with this” Markus drawled interrupting the slight disagreement between his brothers.

Aro sighed again but turned back to face Edward, Alice and Bella, “Very well…we have come to an arrangement no?” he stated it as a question but everyone knew better.

Alice interrupted whatever her brother was going to say, “Yes…Bella will be changed…if Edward will not then I will”

Aro beamed at her and clapped his hands delightedly, “very good…you are free to leave” he dismissed waving his hand at Felix and Jane before turning back to where Hayden sat by Caius. “Hayden love…you should go back to your quarters…there is a group coming…” he trailed off.

Bella watched as the green eyed teen moved towards where Felix and Jane were standing, following them as they escorted the trio back out of the room. They moved quickly but not before Bella caught sight of a large group of tourists being herded in. Bella stared in horror, unable to look away from the soon to be dead group.

Edward gripped her tightly on either side of her shoulders physically moving her along with the group, “there is nothing you can do” he whispered to her sounding pained.

Bella wrenched her gaze from the doomed group catching a potent green one instead. She watched with a mixture of confusion, trepidation and intrigue as the green eyed boy smiled at her before kissing Jane on the cheek and whispering something to her.

The small blond vampire gave him an almost motherly smile in return and nodded. Hayden turned to the two fork’s based vampires and Bella, “It was a pleasure…” he purred grasping the hand of the shocked human and placing a quick kiss on it.

He winked at Edward before turning and all but skipped down the hall, away from them.

Bella stared after the retreating figure in shock. She shook her head and forcefully moved her feet to keep up with the group that was now making its way out of the Volturi fortress.

Something told her that would not be the last of strange green eyed teen they saw.


	5. The shifting of tides

** Chapter four: The shifting of tides **

_As the sun's shadow shifts, so there is no permanence on earth.-Afghan saying_

**April 30, 2006**

**Forks, Washington**

Jasper Whitlock-Cullen, a vampire known for being able to both decipher and manipulate the emotions of those around him…found that for once he had no idea what to make of the emotions that he himself was currently feeling.

He knew that he was glad to see the safe return of his lovely wife, and brother….and okay, he was sort of indifferent to the fact that his brother’s human girlfriend happened to make it back in one piece as well. It wasn’t that Jasper necessarily _disliked_ Bella swan….he just didn’t feel the need to be anywhere near her….ever.

He could blame it on the fact that she was human (and he often did use this excuse with his family), it made the most sense since he was the member of the Cullen family that had the most trouble with controlling his blood lust. But he knew deep down it was more than that. If he was being honest with himself (which he was extra careful to avoid when Edward was around) he just didn’t like the girl.

It wasn’t anything that she did per say….she was just so…well…young.

Young, naïve and a tad whiny in his humble opinion. He couldn’t see what Edward saw in the girl, but then again he had always understood Edward the least out of all the Cullen members. The vampire was always so moody and sullen…not the emotional mix that jasper enjoyed being around.

No, it wasn’t his sudden aversion to Bella Swan that was confusing him, or even how his brother’s relationship with the human had seemed to change (The normally sickeningly dependant couple seemed to be a bit cooler towards one another. Of course Edward was too busy wallowing in his guilt and morals to recognize the fact that Bella was obviously pissed at him…and if the annoyance she had been giving off in waves recently was anything to go by his obliviousness was only compounding that fact).

It was his own wife’s change of behavior that was confusing him. She was still the loving, bubbly Alice that he had fallen in love with all those years ago, but for once her actions and emotions were not adding up. He noticed that she was increasingly feeling loneliness and longing at the most random times, not to mention that she seemed more scatter brained and less interested in couple time then she once was.

He didn’t want to jump to any conclusions but…well; he knew something was going on.

Still, he loved her so he would let her tell him what was bothering her when she was ready. He was reassured slightly to see she hadn’t started to isolate herself from _everyone_ in the coven…she seemed to be spending a little more time with Edward since their return.

This in itself was a little surprising because while those two had always been amicable towards one another, they had never really sought each other out. But Jasper shrugged this fact away, with Alice’s increasingly morose feelings it only made sense that she would seek the company of the most depressing member of their group.

Still he didn’t like the fact that she was keeping things from him. Or for that matter the fact that Edward was hiding things from Bella, while Bella hid things from Edward. It seemed like even the rest of the Cullen family was hiding or avoiding something.

He couldn’t help but notice how everyone in their family was spending more and more time hiding behind false faces…perhaps having to pretend to be someone they weren’t for so long was slowly changing how they interacted even in the safe confines of their home.

Jasper didn’t like it.

But for now there wasn’t much he could do about that it…he did hope that whatever it was that was causing this new need for secrets resolved itself soon…

Because if there was one thing Jasper knew, it was that most secrets had a way of biting you in the ass.

**oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

**July 10, 2006**

**Volterra, Italy**

Hayden squared his thin shoulders shoring up his courage; he would get what he wanted. Well, that is if he could convince Aro, Caius and Marcus that they wanted the same thing…

‘Not as impossible as it sounded’ he tried to reassure himself, not wanting the odds of that happening to keep him from even trying. He ran through all of his arguments in his head once more;

a)      He needed to learn to socialize with people who were under the age of a one or more centuries (he didn’t count Severus, because although his mentor was the youngest to reside in the castle next to him…again Gianna did not enter into his considerations since she would likely be dead by the end of the week…he was still old enough to be his mortal father and therefore did not count as someone close to Hayden’s age).

b)      He needed a change of scenery…to see things outside of Volterra otherwise he would never learn

c)       He would be able to fit in with the mundane easier…and therefore be able to collect information for the Volturi Kings

d)      Okay, he had no other reasons…he just really, really wanted to go.

With this brief reminder, he knocked on the solid library doors as confidently as he could (it would not do any good to show his nerves now). He didn’t bother to wait for the customary ‘enter’; he never had…although he was the only one who could get away with it (although occasionally the twins were afforded the same leniency).

Pushing the door open he entered the circular room, you would think that the fact that the room was circular instead of the more common rectangular shape would make it appear smaller….somehow it seemed to have the opposite effect.

He had always loved this room; part of that love was due to the fact that it was filled to the brim with knowledge making it the place Hayden gravitated towards whenever he had time to kill (which outside of his training and pranking of the guard was fairly often).

“Ah child” Aro’s soft voice floated airlessly towards him.

Hayden went obediently towards the ancient vampire’s extended arm, kissing the cold hand lightly on the knuckles, before repeating the process for Marcus and Caius, and settling down in front of them and the fire.

They wasted a few minutes with idle chatter, filled with mundane questions on his health, studies and training before Marcus ended it, “Childe, what is it that you wished to ask” the quietest king questioned.

Hayden took a deep breath before turning slightly so that he had his back to the fire, causing the faint light of the flames to throw his face into shadow. “I wish to go to Forks” he stated his tone even and face blank from emotion. He did not want to show his nervousness over the request, in case they used that as a reason for him not to go.

Aro studied him for a long moment, “and why do you wish that?”

Taking this as a small token of hope Hayden soldiered on, “You said it yourself padre, Bella Swan must be changed or disposed of…what better way to make sure they keep their end of the bargain then to have someone there to remind them of it?”

It was Caius who was the first one to raise an objection (not that this was all that surprising, oddly enough it had always been the crueler brother of the trio who was most protective of him), “And risk them attacking you? No. it will not happen” he said harshly.

Hayden bit down the disappointment that was threatening to smother him…he had known that Caius would object…he knew he would have to fight for this; he would not let the vampire’s words convince him to back down.

“I would not be going alone padrino…you could send a few of the guard with me…perhaps the twins or Dem?” he suggested unable to completely hide the pleading tone in his voice.

Aro looked contemplative, still not saying anything. Caius turned to the real leader of their group, “You cannot be thinking about this brother…the danger...”

Aro held up his hand to silence his brother’s spiel causing Caius to send him a poisonous glare, “…it has some merit brother” he said at last.

At the look on his more temperamental brother’s face he continued a tad more quickly, “…We did not give the Cullen’s a timeline….we should have. If we send a few of our members, they would be able to enforce one…we could give them a year….and it would solve that _othe_ r issue we discussed…” he trailed off.

Hayden had no idea what other issue Aro was eluding too but at the moment he frankly did not care, if it helped him convince the Volturi leaders praise be it. Caius frowned still not look convinced, although he didn’t seem to be objecting quite as vehemently as before.

“It is a good idea….” Marcus lazily cut in, “…Hayden can experience mundane school and interact with those a little closer to his age….he will grow from it”

Hayden wanted to scowl over the fact that Marcus was speaking as if he wasn’t there….though he reckoned the third brother probably had forgotten the fact that he _was_ there. Marcus had always been a little more disconnected from his surroundings and reality then the other two, although this seemed to allow him to grasp the larger picture, rather than getting caught up with the day to day interactions and issues.

“The twins, Demetri and Severus will go with him then” Caius finally gave his consent, even if he didn’t come right out and say it, “…and you will keep in contact with us…every three days….and at the first sign of trouble you will come back”

Hayden beamed at him, rising up so that he could hug the cold vampire. Caius stiffened and didn’t react but when Hayden pulled away he swore the immortal’s eyes had softened somewhat.

Hayden remained for awhile longer, just listening to the brothers discuss a variety of topics…his mind racing with various plans and things he would need to do before going to Forks.

He had read about America….it sounded much the same as Italy…although, in truth he really hadn’t spent much time other than in the Volturi castle, so he reckoned Forks would likely be different.

That night before he closed his eyes he couldn’t help but smile excitedly to himself….

He was going to America!

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**_(Back in time…day after meeting with the Volturi)_ **

**April 25, 2006**

**Mid-flight from Italy back to United States**

Alice sighed used to the habit of appearing human, as she leaned against the inner wall of the aircraft and stared out the small, thick pained window into the clouds beyond. Bella’s warm body heat pressed against her one side…the temperature difference between them made it feel as though she was almost burning the petite vampire.

Bella was rereading a tattered, well worn edition of Romeo and Juliet while quietly (although to the vampire’s ears it was actually rather loud) humming to herself. Edward had left to go hunt down a flight attendant so that he could request yet another blanket for his girl-friend.

While normally Alice did not mind the teenage girl, at the moment she was fighting the urge to snap at her. It could be due to the fact that the small vampire had the vampire equivalent of a massive headache. She knew that she was likely to receive a vision within the next hour….she always got a headache before they happened.

Most of her family (outside of Edward) did not know the pain that these visions caused her, and she had pleaded with him to keep it this way. She felt slightly guilty for not telling her husband…but she didn’t want to worry him…

She felt her world go white and her whole body stiffen as the vision took over her senses….

 _Green eyes, pale skin….laughter…blood…._ the pictures and the story they told, raced by at a dizzying speed _._

The vision lasted the equivalent of three minutes before Alice closed her eyes and re-established her surroundings. This was huge. She didn’t even know how to begin to process the meaning and the consequences of what was going to happen.

Bella, who had noticed her stiffen, was poking her incessantly…”…lice…Alice…are you ok? What did you see? Is it about me and Edward? Is he going to change me himself?”

Alice tried to ignore the irritation she felt spring up at the rapid fire questions. She couldn’t help but scoff to herself over the self-centered theme of those questions. “It was nothing….don’t worry about it….just rest for now” she mechanically reassured the girl beside her, relieved when Bella eventually shrugged and went back to her book.

Truth be told, she found Bella’s obsession with the tragic love story a tad disconcerting.

Noticing the purposefully slow motions of Edward returning to his seat, Alice immediately started to recount the mandarin version of War and Peace causing Edward to shoot her a suspicious look. Alice ignored him.

She watched Edward lean over to answer one of Bella’s questions out of the corner of her eye….if they only knew just how much everything was going to change for them…..

For everyone.


	6. Welcome to obscurity

** Chapter five: Welcome to the obscurity  **

_“A hermit is simply a person to whom civilization has failed to adjust itself.” ―_ [ _Will Cuppy_ ](http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/43211.Will_Cuppy)

**September 15, 2006**

Jane was not a happy vampire. She could not believe Aro had decided that sending her along on his new ‘mission’ was a good idea. Honestly…a mission, that from the sounds of things was not going involve a lot of slaying, slashing, maiming or killing…. how dreadfully boring.

No, he had to be out of his mind if he thought sending her on a ‘diplomatic’ mission was a good idea…although she had a feeling the reason that she had been chosen was because Harry had wanted to go.

Don’t get her wrong, out of everyone in their Volturi ‘family’ Harry was one of two people she actually cared about beyond her desire to get ahead…the other was her twin… so that was saying a lot. But as much as she loved the little fool it did not mean that she was happy about being sent to the middle of fucking Washington.

Why couldn’t the Cullen’s have at least had the decency of settling in New York or somewhere other than some hick backwards town? Right….rain…sun etc. Sometimes being a vampire could be so restricting.

A pleasantly warm hand on her shoulder brought her out of her sulky thoughts. That was another thing that was just slightly different about Harry…unlike a vampire he still generated his own body heat but unlike a mere human it was a pleasant warmth, not an uncomfortable burning.

“Jane, we are landing…do we need to rent a car when we do?” Harry asked her staring out of the plane window in something akin to awe. She supposed she couldn’t really blame him, it wasn’t like he had ever had the chance to go anywhere outside Volterra…much less fly. Of course that didn’t explain her idiotic brother’s fascination; he had definitely done this before…then again he had always been the more childish one out of them.

She sometimes wondered if turning them at such a young age had effectively locked them in the personalities they had been at that age. She had always been the more serious, responsible one (ever since their mortal mother had passed away, it had been up to her to take care of her brother and father…not that there was much she could do for her father since he was much more interested in the bottle then his own children…probably because he thought they were witches and responsible for his wife’s death). While her brother had always been the playful, carefree one…in the centuries since their transition, that hadn’t changed.

“Yes, we will be renting a car to drive to Forks” she said the name of the town as if it were a particularly distasteful thing, “Severus and Demetri will meet us there…they should have found a place of residence for us by now”

Severus and Demetri had been the other two vampires, (on top of the twins) that had been chosen to go along with Harry. She knew that the hybrid (for that is what Harry was…a cross between a wizard, human and vampire) thought this was over kill…but he had not been told the real reason there were so many of them going with him.

Aro had informed Jane and Alec before they left, that part of the reason they were even allowing Harry to leave Volturi was to delay the wizards from finding him…that said they did not want to leave him completely unprotected in Forks either, hence the four vampires.

The plane began its shuddering, bumpy descent into the Seattle-Tacoma international Airport and Jane locked away her annoyance at the whole trip…well at least for the time being. She would just have to deal with it…and at least there was the chance that she might get to kill the Bella-chit or if she was really lucky, the entire Cullen coven…now that would be enjoyable.

With these thoughts to placate her she smiled cheerfully (or as cheerfully as she ever managed to smile) at her brother and Harry.

Maybe the trip wouldn’t be so bad after all.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Harry stared out of the car window and watched the whir of green vegetation go by. Washington was very….well, green. There was really no other way to put it… it was a far cry from Volterra, that was for sure. He wondered idly if England was like this…he had always been a little curious to see the place that he had actually been born, but if there was one thing the brothers were adamant on, it was not going to England…at least not in this century.

Harry got the feeling that there was more behind that sentiment then they told him…in fact he was pretty sure there was more behind them allowing him to go to Forks then he had been told but he honestly didn’t care that much. If it allowed him out of Italy then he wasn’t going to pry.

A few hours after they had left the airport, Jane slowed the car down just slightly as they entered the town that they would now be residing in…Forks.

In all honesty it really wasn’t much to look at; it couldn’t have had a population of more than a few thousand people…well now a few thousand and five. The down looked like it fit the description of ‘small town’ (one he had gotten from the books he read) to a tee.

A few gas stations lined the road on the way in; while the main street consisted of a hardware store, a diner, a movie theater with all of two choices and a few mom and pops clothing stores. The diner had the typical array of pick-up trucks and 10-15 year old vehicles parked out front…even though it was two in the afternoon.

Harry would wager a guess that there was probably a group of middle aged men and woman all sitting together, drinking coffee and chewing the fat (another expression he had picked up from reading…although he really didn’t understand that one).

He wondered if he would get a chance to break out his small town vocabulary that he had boned up on. The same vocabulary that Jane and Alec had ribbed him on mercilessly for learning…he only hoped he had a chance to prove them wrong.

They continued to drive, until they reached a property that was about ten minutes out of town. It was the one that Demetri and Severus had decided would fit their needs the best. Harry took his time getting out of the vehicle and studying the house before him (unlike the rest of the vampires Harry rarely used his enhanced speed to do day to day tasks…then again he had been human for most of his existence, while they had been vampire for the majority of theirs…well, except Severus and he was just too impatient to bother doing things the human way).

The house itself was nice. It was probably a tad on the small size considering that there were now five of them living there. It consisted of five bedrooms, a kitchen, three bathrooms, and a living room as well as an attached two car garage…two floors in all. It was what you would call a log cabin, and had a wraparound porch and blue roof and awnings. It was on the older side, but it was well cared for.

Overall it would suit their purposes. Harry knew that Jane would whine about the destitute appearance of the place…but then again she was used to the Volturi castle…that and she had always been a bit on the materialistic side of things. Alec and Demetri probably wouldn’t have even noticed the difference whether they were living in a trailer or a mansion, while Severus would likely convert part of the garage to a lab for his potions (it was one of the few things he could still do since losing most of his magic).

As for Harry, he found the place quaint…and really he still had his choice of rooms considering he was the only one out of the five of them that actually needed one to sleep in. He wondered what Demetri and Severus would do to pass time here…he knew that he and the twins were going to be enrolled in the local high school, since apparently most of the Cullen’s attended.

While he found it a little odd that century old vampires would pretend to be human and attend school, he was actually a little excited at the prospect. He had never gotten the chance to go to school (well not in the traditional sense, and he didn’t think that tutoring with Alec and Jane, along with several other Volturi guards counted…for one he was pretty sure that in regular school your teachers didn’t threaten to bite you if you got an answer wrong).

The unpacking barely took them anytime (and thanks to Harry’s ability to shrink and un-shrink things…they had been able to pack a fair bit) and by three-thirty they were out of things to do. Severus and Demetri decided that they would use the time to let them know what they had found out during their exploration of the town and area…including the current residence of the Cullen’s and the fact that there was a large pack of shape shifters living on reservation not far from them.

They had been careful not to be spotted or move across any of the reserve during their initial survey. They had also decided to only observe the Cullen’s from a distance for the time being. Bella Swan, they had noted was still very much human. Not that they had expected anything else (they assumed that the Cullen’s would wait as long as they could before turning the girl) but it was still a tad irritating.

They discussed their next move, eventually agreeing to just continuing to observe the other coven for now…they would eventually go and visit them (aka introduce themselves and subtly…or if Jane was along not so subtly threaten them) but for now they would let the Cullen’s draw their own conclusions…. Hey, they had few sources of entertainment, sue them.

The cover story they were using (much to Severus’s disgust) was that he and Demetri where partners.

They decided to tell people that they had adopted the twins since they couldn’t have children of their own, and a few years ago Harry (who was posing as Severus’s nephew) had come to live with them since his own parents had been killed in a car crash.

The reason that they were in Forks was because Demetri had gotten a temporary job as the Applied mathematics Professor at the Peninsula College in Port Angeles, but that Severus had inherited as house in Forks so they decided to move here, while Demetri would commute to work. The house they were staying at ironically enough was an old Prince property.

This of course would allow Demetri the freedom of long absences ‘for work’, when really he would travel to various covens in the state in order to report back to the Volturi (they liked to keep a close eye on other covens, less they got too ideas of grandeur). Severus was posing as an entrepreneur who ran his own alternative mail order medicinal shop (aka: using his potions to cure ailments).

Harry would pose as a junior in school, while the twins would pose as sophomores (something that Harry found endlessly amusing…but then again they were physically still 12-13 years old so there was no way they could pretend to be older then fifteen, while Harry who was physically sixteen could easily pass for seventeen or eighteen year old.

When Severus and Demetri had finished filling them in on the area and their new cover Demetri and the twins decided to go hunting in Port Angeles, while Severus stayed back with Harry (he had fed before they had arrived and wanted to finish one of his potions).

Harry wandered his way up to his room and lay back on his bed pondering the next couple of weeks. He honestly didn’t know what to expect. He knew that the Cullen’s would likely see them as a threat and resent their presence…

Then again living with the Volturi he was used to that type of reception (well that or false flattery and ass kissing). He honestly couldn’t wait to see their faces on Monday when they saw him and the twins at school.

He might not be nearly as sadistic as the rest of his ‘family’ but that didn’t mean he didn’t enjoy messing with people. And he got the feeling that the Cullen’s and Bella Swan would prove to be most entertaining.


	7. The squalor of humanity

** Chapter six: ** ** The squalor of humanity **

_“If it’s true that our species is alone in the universe, then I’d have to say the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little.” ―_ [ _George Carlin_ ](http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22782.George_Carlin)

He took it back.

He took back every little snide or cynical thought he had ever had in regards to one of his vampire family make disparaging comments about humanity as a whole. Up until today…well until nine am and his arrival at Fork’s high school to be exact, he had always thought that they were a tad bias. He was wrong.

Completely and utterly wrong….humans, especially teenage humans apparently were unimaginably annoying. Not only were they annoying but they were incredibly stupid.

Though perhaps that was a little unfair of him since the majority of his interactions throughout his past twenty+ years had been with beings with centuries of knowledge or at the very least a masters in potions. So, it was perhaps a little presumptuous of him to expect the fifteen and sixteen year olds around him to behave with even an ounce of dignity or intelligence.

And don’t even get him started on the bloody giggling and staring…it honestly was making his skin crawl, and he lived with people whose natural instincts were to drain him of life…so that was an impressive feat on the teenage population of Forks to say the least.

He shook his head minutely to try and force his attention back to the pasty, overweight man standing several rows in front of him who was waving around a wooden stick that he assumed was meant to be a teaching aid while gesturing with more enthusiasm then was warranted to a messily chalk written point on the black board. So apparently he needed to revise his earlier sentiment…it was not only the teenagers of Fork’s high school who were annoying, but the teachers as well.

Honestly, why would anyone bother making a diorama? Truly it was one of the worst wastes of time Hayden had ever heard of….and he had searched out various unique ways to ~~waste~~ pass time back in Volterra.  

He idly wondered how Jane and Alec were making out with an even lower intelligence stimulating experience….thank god and all that was holy that he hadn’t been made a sophomore. He spent the next few minutes entertaining himself by imaging up various scenarios. He wondered if there would be a sophomore class left at the end of the day.

Jane had already been in a foul mood this morning, stemming from the fact that she had been forced or rather cajoled (since really other then Aro, no one could force Jane to do anything) into drinking a potion that would change the vampire’s eye colors to a more human shade (you just didn’t see many humans wandering around with crimson colored eyes). She had bitched and whined that it tasted worse than human food…which Hayden had promptly waved in her face with a gleeful grin.

Apparently she hadn’t appreciated his humor, demonstrated by the fact that half of his text books were no longer packed in his school bag…that was rather embarrassing to try and explain to his teachers. He was rather disappointed by the fact that none of the current Cullens…or even Bella for that fact were in his year.

That meant he would have to wait until noon to see their reactions to his and the twins presence…not that they would be able to catch the vampires off guard given the gossip fire that had taken place the minute three new students had set foot in the sad looking building(s).

He winced when the shrill bell rang, even if he wasn’t a vampire he had carried over a lot of their abilities and increased hearing was one of them making the school bell a rather painful experience.

“Hayden! Hey like wait up for me… I will like walk with you to lunch…like you can sit with me and my friends!” Natalie the current bane of his existence chirped at him.

He had shown absolutely no interest or even pleasantness towards the ditzy redhead and yet she still clung to him like white on rice. It didn’t help that her non-stop chatter was filled with the word ‘like’ every few words. At first he thought she had an unfortunate syndrome of some sort…he quickly realized that it was called stupidity.

Had she been the only clinger-on he had amassed in the few short hours since his arrival, he might have been less cranky…however she came along with an additional five equally distasteful humans.

He sighed to himself and answered her in the coldest tone that he could manage without actually accidently freezing something with his magic, “Thank you Natalie but I was planning on sitting with my siblings today”

“Oh” she said looking as though someone had told her that not all little girls grew up to be princesses. The crest fallen expression lasted only a mere few seconds before it was replaced by a shiny white grin (did she bleach them or something? Because that color was not natural). “You can like invite your family to like sit with us…we don’t like mind spending time with the younger grade”

Hayden wanted to slam his head into the lockers they were passing… his fast pace not doing anything to shake her off, “That is a lovely offer…but they are a little…..antisocial. I think this being our first day we should take it slow….perhaps another time” he gave her a tight smile, which unfortunately made her blush and flutter her eye lashes at him.

“Oh…that’s like totally sensitive of you….looking out for your younger siblings. Like I totally understand! Maybe like tomorrow or something” she cooed.

Hayden didn’t bother confirming her query but broke away from her as quickly as he could to head over to where he had spotted Jane and Alec sitting and glaring at anyone who came to close to them. It wasn’t until he had sat down beside Alec that he chanced a glance over to where he could feel _their_ presence coming from.

What he saw made him want to smirk. All five vampires and one additional human were sitting stiffly at the table across the cafeteria. He took special pleasure out of the fact that Edward look like he was struggling against the impulse to come over and tear their throats out, while Bella was white as ash beside him. He smirked a Cheshire grin at Edward, giving him a wink, delighting in the tensing of his jaw before turning his attention to the rest of the group.

He quickly spotted Alice the only other one that he had met…and well, that was odd.

She didn’t seem quite as antagonistic as Edward or as frightened as Bella at their presence…instead she looked rather confused and was staring quite hard in the twin’s directions. Hmmm…curious.

To her right sat a rather beautiful blond vampire with a disdainful look on her face who was leaning against a bear of a man…or vampire to be accurate. The large vampire simply was tense but not to the same degree as his bronze haired brother.

The last member of their group made Hayden pause….he was by far the most attractive vampire of the group. Honey blond hair, and the same bronze eyes that the rest of the coven had…although his contained a certain wildness that the others were missing.

Hayden started in surprise…he felt…he felt drawn to the golden haired vampire.

That was unexpected.

He quickly pushed this line of thought away and focused on the vampire’s reaction towards them…he look tense as though preparing himself for an attack, although his was far more wary then his brother, like he would evaluate the potential threat before choosing how to proceed.

‘So, at least he is smarter than Edward’ Hayden thought with some satisfaction, although he resented the fact that he should care what the blond vampire thought of him at all.

Perusal finished, Hayden turned his back to the group and proceeded to ignore them, focusing instead on his ‘siblings’. He lowered his voice to a whisper, knowing it was too low for human ears but that it was plenty loud enough for vampire group to hear.

“So Jane love…how many classmates do you and Alec have left? Do they taste any different then Italian’s?”

Jane gave him a wicked smirk having quickly caught on to what he was up too, “Oh…they are still all alive…for now”

Alec grimaced and added in an even quieter voice, “unfortunately”

Hayden snuck a glance and was gratified to see that all of the Cullen’s had gone statue still, with the exception of Bella who was tugging fruitlessly on Edwards arm asking him what was going on. Hayden shook his head in disgust…honestly he could not understand why someone as old as Edward would attempt to be with a human.

Then again he found the entire Cullen lifestyle odd and distasteful. Why would anyone try and suppress their true natures? It was abnormal to try and be human…which was exactly what the Cullen’s were doing. Eating only animal blood, dating humans, attending school…

Though the last one made him a bit of a hypocrite he suppose, though he was far more human they any of them were…and he was only attending to rattle them (and okay so maybe he had been curious as to what all the fuss was about).

They passed the rest of lunch off in silence, Jane trying to burn holes in the loud football jocks seated in the table next to them with her eyes, Alec sneaking glances every few minutes back at the Cullen table, and Hayden pushing the soggy noodle something around his plate in disgust. He dumped the entire mess in the trash when the bell went off vowing to pack his own lunch in the future. Unlike his ‘brother and sister’ he still needed to eat.

He was lost in the memory of when Aro had given him blood to drink, thinking he might have inherited that characteristic as well (he hadn’t and the whole experience had been disastrous) causing him to be distracted enough to bump into the very vampire that he had been previously studying.

The blond made to flinch away from him but then stopped in shock. For a brief second Hayden wondered what had made the vampire pause when he was inundated by emotions…jealously, lust, boredom, happiness, sadness, disgust…more and more swamped him and he stumbled backwards. He would have fallen had Alec not grabbed onto him at the last minute.

The blond vampire mumbled a hasty apology before moving as fast as the setting would allow away from Hayden, an unsettled look on his face. One that Hayden couldn’t blame him for. He assumed the vampire must be an empath…what he didn’t understand was why that ability had transferred to him.

He hadn’t been using his ability…that shouldn’t have happened, maybe back when he still couldn’t control his gift there was a chance that he might slip, but not now. He had, had perfect control for more than seven years…he mirrored the blond in his discomfort over what had just happened.

He would have to tell Severus about this. Maybe his mentor would be able to make sense of it.

Something told him that he would be disappointed…that this was for him and him alone to figure out.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

The day started off with a strange sense of déjà vu, only this time instead of the endless gossip centering on the chief of police’s daughter coming to live in Forks, it was filled with speculation over the arrival of three apparently beautiful siblings.

Normally Jasper did not pay the gossip monger’s words and thoughts any heed but he had to admit that he was actually a little curious as well. According to what few snippets of information Edward had managed to tell them before classes they should be expecting to see Aphrodite’s children walking down the hall.

Of course this line of thought made Jasper and the rest of his siblings instantly suspicious…it could very well be that the arrivals were human but from the way people were talking he didn’t think so. He hadn’t survived a civil war, followed by countless vampire battles by being lax after all.

By the time lunch had rolled around he was more than a little on edge. He made his way, along with Alice towards the rest of their coven, careful to avoid bumping into anyone. His control had been getting better but it was a far cry from perfect. Hell, half the time he was around Bella all he could think about was ripping her throat out just to make some other expression (any other) other then naïve confusion appear in her murky brown eyes.

Ok, reigning himself in….it was inappropriate of him to let his own frustrations and unease morph into anger towards Edwards girlfriend…it wasn’t her fault she smelt like a five course meal.

He sat gracefully next to Alice and tried to will his own dark desires back into the little box in his mind. Thankfully Emmet provided a much needed distraction.

“Hey, so eddie…get anything on these new kids?” Emmet asked in his usual playful banter, causing Rosalie to wrinkle her nose in displeasure. She had been on a kick lately about trying to get her mate to act more mature….somehow Jasper thought that this was one battle she was going to lose.

Edward frowned, making his serious countenance look like the before picture for Lorazepam, “No….nothing more then I told you this morning. Although apparently they are even less friendly then we are”

Jasper mentally smiled at this, ignoring the frustration and curiosity roiling off of the rest of the table’s occupants…that and the boredom and confusion coming off of Bella. He couldn’t help but be a little bit proud over his own reputation as being completely unapproachable by the majority of the school population.

Of course this reputation could probably be chalked up to the fact that he always seemed to look like he was in pain (which he was)…for some reason this seemed to make others feel uncomfortable around him. Not that he was complaining it was exactly how he wanted it.

“Alice?” he asked softly drawing surprised looks from the rest of his siblings, almost as if they had forgotten that he was even there. Which in all honesty they probably had. Being the quietest and most reserved out of the Cullen’s Jasper found that he spent most of his time on the periphery. Watching but not really participating.

In the beginning this hadn’t really bothered him, he was still getting used to spending time with other vampires that didn’t involve killing and fighting them, so the space actually helped. But as time passed and he grew more accustomed to a relatively peaceful existence, that space didn’t decrease and he was finding it more and more isolating.

It didn’t help that the one vampire who had not treated him as a background player had continued to become more and more distant over the past few months. He had been debating about confronting Alice about it for more than a week now but still hadn’t reached a decision.

“hmmm….not much. It’s rather blurry and out of focus. I can get snippets but they are just that, together they don’t really add up to make any sense…” she stated scrunching her brow as though trying to catch a fleeing thought, “I do know that they will end up playing a very big role in the change that is coming” she added after a second.

“Change? What do you mean? Is it bad? Is it Victoria? Or another vampire?” Bella asked her voice full of worry clutching Edward’s forearm tightly.

Jasper had to stop himself from showing his surprise when he felt a wave of annoyance off of Alice at Bella’s questions. Well that was odd…his sister had always doted on Edward’s girlfriend…all because of some vision she had seen where the girl would be part of their family….unless that had somehow changed?

“I don’t know” Alice bit out, though only those who knew her exceptionally well would have caught the irritation in her tone, “I haven’t been able to get a clear read on the future since we left the Volturi” she admitted.

This had everyone looking even more worried. “Do you think they did something to your vision? You did touch Aro…” Edward asked concern causing him to tense further.

Alice shrugged, the human gesture of course coming off far to graceful to truly emanate the real thing, “I’m not sure only hours after we left I got a bunch of flashes…most of them involved that boy we saw there….I swear immediately after they happened I knew what was going to happen but it-it’s like the memories have been tampered with….their foggy and no longer make any sense” she sighed frustrated.

Jasper couldn’t help but feel his own emotions fluctuate at that….that was not good…especially given how much Carlisle and the others relied on Alice’s gift. Whoever or whatever was playing with Alice’s visions was a threat that they couldn’t afford to discount.

Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of something that had his fighting instincts trying to lash out….he smelled it then…honestly, he wasn’t sure how they had missed it before…vampires. He slowly turned his head to scan for the new arrivals and felt an intense anger from Edward and fear from Bella.

The vampires that had entered looked to be quite young, although they moved in a way that spoke of many more years of experience then their physical bodies showed. It had to be Jane and Alec from the Volturi…the twins were infamous, known for their sadistic natures and high place within the Vampire guard. He had never seen them before but given the reactions of Edward, Alice and Bella he knew he was right.

What the hell were they doing here? Edward had said they the Volturi had told them that Bella would have to be changed and that they would be keeping an eye on them…but he never thought that they meant literally. To send two of their most prized guards to….babysit? It just didn’t make any sense.

Lost in his thoughts he completely missed the furious hissing going on between his siblings as they tossed back theories and concerns, he was unable however to tune out Bella’s insistent questions regarding the whole situation. Not what he needed at the moment…thank you very much.

Before they could delve too deeply into the matter the third new student entered the cafeteria and gracefully danced his way across to where Jane and Alec were sitting. And really that was the only way that Jasper could describe it…it was almost beautiful.

He couldn’t help but feel a little shocked at the sight of the dark haired teen…he had heard of course his families’ stories of the boy they had seen with the Volturi but he hadn’t really warranted them with much truth. He had chalked up Bella’s description of “a dark angel’ to her teenage girl, hormone ridden mind. He was a little uncomfortable with the fact that he couldn’t really disrepute her assessment now that he saw the teen.

It only served to make him even tenser.

This was not helped by the fact that the black haired boy (and why wasn’t he a vampire, if Aro valued his potential so much?) seemed to be teasing them…especially Edward, causing his brother to look like he was on the verge of going on a murderous rampage. Though, he didn’t think that this would intimidate the teen all that much considering he was living with the Volturi.

The remainder of lunch was spent in tense silence, no one daring to say anything given the fact that Jane and Alec could quite easily hear whatever they said. Edward accidently broke the plastic meal tray in half when the boy (Hayden apparently) asked Jane if she had sampled her classmates yet. Jasper was pretty sure it was said in jest but given who they were…he couldn’t say for sure.

When the bell signaling that lunch was over went off, he like the rest of them were quick to rise and make their way towards the exits. For once he wasn’t concentrating on where he was walking, far to distracted with sifting through what their presence possibly meant for the rest of them to be paying attention to his surroundings.

Because of this he didn’t see Hayden until it was too late and he had run into the teen. It was only the briefest of touches, but it was like the world had stopped…as cliché as that sounds.

He felt nothing…nothing besides his own emotions. The constant swirling and ebbing of everyone else’s emotions just disappeared, as though he was the only one in the room. It was the most unnerving thing he had ever experienced. He couldn’t quite decide whether he loved or hated the feeling….it was so different.

Just as suddenly as they had touched he had leapt back putting much needed distance in-between them. He didn’t understand what had happened….he suddenly understood the usual look on Bella’s face….he was confused.

As he hastily fled the cafeteria, not even thinking of where he was headed… he couldn’t help but picture the surprised look on Hayden’s ethereal face.

Apparently he wasn’t the only one confused.


	8. Undercurrents of turmoil

** Chapter six: Undercurrents of turmoil  **

_“People are like waves of the ocean, some cover you with tides of refreshment, whilst others drown you in floods of turmoil” ―_ [ _Imam Ali as_ ](http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6573770.Imam_Ali_as)

Bella was feeling rather cantankerous. Everything had been going so much better after she, Edward and Alice had returned to Forks… it was almost as if the months of abandonment had never even happened between her and Edward.

Okay, so maybe she was looking at the entire thing with rose colored glasses but Edward was still affectionate with her, hovering around and making sure that she was safe and protected. That hadn’t changed…sure, perhaps he was a little more distant then he had been when they first started dating but really it wasn’t anything that caused her concern. Edward had always been a tad moody and introspective.

She had just chalked it up to the fact that he was likely feeling guilty about leaving her on her own and then risking her life with the Volturi. Honestly, besides the fact that she had been scared that they wouldn’t make it out of Italy, she was actually rather thankful for the whole Volturi meeting. Now there would be no more excuses from Edward about turning her.

It wasn’t as if she had been obsessed with immortality before meeting the Cullen’s or anything...really the idea hadn’t even occurred as something that was even plausible until Edward. But after meeting the Cullen’s in their frozen perfection, seeing just how indestructible they were…she had to admit it was something that she very much wanted.

She hated being so weak and plain next to the beautiful family (despite the fact that Edward had reassured her time and time again that she was not plain and dull but special). She had tried to believe him but there was always that lingering doubt.

Before Forks she had never been ‘that’ girl, the girl who drew everyone’s attention and admiration. Back home in Phoenix she had been a fly on the wall, it was only after her arrival in Forks that anyone had even noticed her (outside her immediate family and they really didn’t count).

Sure she made out as though she didn’t want or enjoy the attention but she couldn’t deny there was a certain amount of satisfaction to be had at being so wanted. She should feel bad over Mike and Jake’s feelings but really it was all rather flattering, she couldn’t help but lead them on a bit. It was all harmless.

When Edward had started paying her attention she was thrilled….here was a truly beautiful and unattainable guy who wanted her! She had reveled in discovering his secret and becoming part of the aloof family. For once she had truly been content with her place.

It was only after the run-in with James that she started to see just how pathetically easy it was to hurt her.

It caused her thoughts to turn to her constant aging and the fact that Edward would remain forever stagnant- always the beautiful seventeen year old…and she hated it. Fear and insecurity had come next….the only reason she had been popular in Forks was because she was a new commodity, the longer she stayed the less that would be true. The more time that passed the older and uglier she would become, how was she supposed to keep Edward’s attention if she was old and wrinkly?

The more time that passed made it obvious to her how she would just come to lose everything…her popularity, Edward…

She had become obsessed with being turned, she honestly didn’t understand Edward’s reluctance to the whole thing…being a vampire was akin to being perfect in her mind. Even if she and Edward weren’t meant to last forever once she was turned she would have an eternity to figure it out. Not to mention she would be beautiful and indestructible.

So, she was actually happy with the Volturi’s ultimatum...sure her father would miss her and all that but he had done fine by himself before she came to Forks and he would be fine once she left. As for her mother, well she had Phil and Bella had always felt like a third wheel around them…something that she secretly resented.

Regardless her turning or lack thereof was not the reason she was feeling a touch crabby at the moment…no, that reason was due to the fact that the strange black haired boy and two of the Volturi vampires had shown up at school. She could tell the Cullen ‘teens’ were unnerved by their appearance, that there was something that they weren’t telling her (especially Alice) and she hated it.

She hated being left out, but no matter how much she asked, whined or pleaded with Edward he just brushed her off with a half assed platitude and Alice was even worse…the vampire who had always gone out of her way to make her feel like one of them seemed like she was almost avoiding her. Not to mention Rosalie just seemed smug over her siblings’ new behavior.

It was infuriating and she was sure that it was Hayden’s fault.

Well, okay perhaps she was blaming everything that had happened since the Volturi meeting on the softest target (in her mind), but she rather do that then place the blame where it belonged.

She was adamant that the current changes were through no fault of her own, or even Edwards and his families…it was the Volturi’s doing (she might be thankful that they were forcing Edward’s hand in the whole turning business but she was well aware that if Edward didn’t turn her the second option wasn’t all that pleasant). She wasn’t however; suicidal enough to focus her ire on the sadistic twins… at least Hayden seemed to be human. She might stand a chance against him….plus she had had enough with all of her human friend’s awed tones whenever they gossiped about the dark haired boy’s beauty.

It wasn’t fair! He wasn’t even a vampire so why did he look that way? It was enough to make her hate him.

The amount of attention he was getting from everyone…not just the Cullen’s was rankling her….especially when Edward couldn’t stop staring at him (oh she knew that she was being a tad unreasonable since Edward said that the only reason was because he couldn’t read Hayden’s thoughts…but even that made her angry. She was supposed to be the only one who’s thought’s Edward wasn’t able to read!).

She had vindictively been going over ideas to draw her boyfriend’s attentions back to where they belonged…perhaps a visit to the reserve? Edward had always been extreme when it came to do with anything with the wolves.

Well, she was going to do something….she was not going to sit by and watch everyone swoon over the newest arrivals and toss her aside, that was for damn sure.

Somehow she would make sure Edward’s attention was back where it belonged…and that was on her.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Hayden gracefully sat down amongst the stacked bleachers in the Fork’s high school gym, moving quietly as too not draw the entire senior classes’ attention to him immediately. He scanned the various bodies taking a moment to ponder just what the hell they were doing. It appeared that the class was divided into two large groups and were facing off against each other with a large net in-between them. After a few minutes Hayden was able to gather that hitting the white ball over the net at the other team and making them miss it was the goal.

He couldn’t help but snort in amusement as Alice ‘missed’ and let the ball hit the ground, again he wondered what could possibly be so appealing about high school that the Cullen’s would choose to subject themselves to it over and over again (Alec had told him that this coven had been to various high schools multiple times). If this was his first time at a high school and he was already bored, he couldn’t imagine being them.

It wasn’t very long until one of the annoying teenagers spotted him watching…he was pretty sure that the slightly dopey looking blond was named Mike or something mundane like that. He of course was quick to whisper to Bella who was standing next to him causing the girl to spin around violently and send him a death glare.

Well now wasn’t that interesting?

Back in Italy the brunette had only looked at him with confusion and wariness, in the cafeteria it had been fear….now hostility? He wondered what had changed to cause this reaction….not that hostility was all that surprising considering he and the twins were there to ensure her turning. It was a little surprising in the fact that he was pretty sure that she had wanted to be turned.

He shook off these questions and instead made sure to send a lazy smirk back at her, whatever her problem was he would be sure to exploit it for his own amusement. He watched her muddy brown eyes narrow before they darted towards her vampire boyfriend almost unintentionally.

Perhaps she was worried about how her boyfriend would react to his presence? Or --an evil grin swept across his face--perhaps she was worried over the loss of attention her sparkly boy toy was giving her? Not that it mattered all that much to Hayden…he had come to watch their class for a reason after all.

He ignored his own impulse to sneak a glance at the blond haired vampire from earlier…he might want to play with all of their heads but that didn’t mean he wanted to have his own head played with. He watched the class with a look of boredom waiting until the gym teacher blew his whistle and shouted that everyone had ten minutes to get some water.

Perfect. He was waiting until he could let them know just why he was here…Severus had told him and the twins that it would be best to arrange a meeting between their group and all of the Cullen’s, he had hinted to Hayden that he would be the best one to relay this message.

He was probably afraid that Jane would be too tempted to use her ‘gift’ for kicks and everyone knew that Alec went nowhere without Jane…so that left Hayden. Plus he was the easiest one for other’s to underestimate given his human like appearance. Even after people saw his gift used, they tended to have a hard time viewing the petite green eyed male as a serious threat. Their mistake.

He made his way lazily down the bleacher stairs and walked confidently over to where Edward, Alice, the blond vampire and Bella were standing in loose circle obviously talking about him. Hayden hid a smile at this.

The group fell silent as they sensed his approach, turning to stare at him (or in Edward and Bella’s cases glare).

“Edward…darling how good to see you again” Hayden purred at the straight backed vampire, inwardly laughing at the murderous expression on Bella’s face. He made a show of turning reluctantly away from staring at Edward to look over the rest of the group, “Alice…you look lovely” he commented completely ignoring Bella.

He didn’t know why but he was feeling rather petty at the moment…he contributed it to having to put up with being irritated out of his mind all day… it felt inordinately good to rankle the human girls feathers.

He finally turned his attention on the blond male vampire who had been the object of his attentions at lunch. “I don’t believe we have met…Hayden Potter, you are?” he asked not extending his hand for a handshake quite mindful of the reaction he had towards the vampires touch earlier in the day.

“Jasper Whitlock-Cullen” the blond answered, a barely their southern accent tinting his words.

“Lovely” Hayden answered caressing the word, he saw Jasper swallow at the tone.

“What do you want? Shouldn’t you been in class or something?” Bella interrupted her tone petulant obviously not being pleased at having been left out.

Hayden smirked at her, “Oh no, it is Latin last period and as I am quite fluent in it already the principal gave me a spare”

“And why are you here?” Edward finally spoke up his tone clipped and uncomfortable.

“hmmm…perhaps I just wanted to see you in shorts dear Edward” Hayden shot back smiling wider at the flustered look that came to Edward’s face, “Oh, calm yourself….the only one who wants to see that is your little toy human” he added when it looked as though the vampire was about to have a meltdown, “no, I am here because we need to arrange a time when me and a few others can drop by and meet your entire coven”

“No!” Bella cried out darting a look at the rest of the vampires.

“It’s really not a choice Bella dearest…nor would it be yours to make even if it was” he stated before turning to the three vampires in front of him, “I would suggest tomorrow evening…hmmm sevenish?” he asked, although it really wasn’t a question.

Edward looked like he was about to snap something back but was cut off by Alice who had strangely enough just stayed back an observed up until then. “Of course, we will let Carlisle know…how many should we be expecting?” she added hesitantly.

Hayden hid a smile, so apparently the scrambling spell he had placed on himself and the rest of the Volturi after Alice’s last visit had worked to interfere with her foresight…good to know. “hmm…not many, the twins, myself, most likely Demetri and Severus”

The group stared back at him wide eyed. He knew that they were surprised over the fact that even he and the twins were here…it was rather shocking that Demetri and Severus had come along as well.

The coach blew his whistle again and yelled at everyone to get their ‘butts back on the court’ effectively bringing the end to their little chat. “Well, glad we talked…until tomorrow” Hayden said and sauntered his way to the exit.

He didn’t need to turn around to know that all their eyes were still on him…he couldn’t help but smile wider; he always had been something of an attention whore.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Severus gave the slowly bubbling aquamarine potion one more stir before retreating back up the three carpeted steps that connected the garage (aka: his new potions room) to the rest of the house. He had exactly one hour before the ‘ _obsurea potion*’_ was complete, he had been fiddling around a bit with this batch hoping to increase the longevity so that they would only need to use it once a week instead of every morning. Anything that saved him from Jane’s whining was a good thing.

He lowered himself gracefully onto the black leather couch that Demetri had bought for the place… he found it rather ridiculous that the emotionless vampire cared what furniture they had since Hayden was really the only one of them that needed to use any of it.

Not that Severus didn’t use it…he was still in the habit considering he had been human for longer than he had been vampire at this point. As his stone hard body relaxed back into the cushions he let his mind wander to what Hayden had told him after returning from school yesterday.

He had no idea why Hayden’s gift would choose to strain his control now of all times. Hayden was worried that it would continue to happen until he was unable to control it at all….in all honestly, Severus wasn’t sure whether that could happen. He had suggested to his worried charge that he test it out on the twins and Demetri to see if he lost control when in contact with their abilities.

It was to both Hayden’s and his own relief that it was not the case.

They had decided to keep an eye on it and Severus had sent word to Aro explaining the situation. As much as he really did not want to be the one to raise the possibility that something was wrong with their favorite childe, he knew that if he didn’t and something were to happen it would be his neck on the chopping block. So he had sent the letter…he could only hope that their King’s wouldn’t react too badly to the news.

Pushing these thoughts away he reached over and snatched the muggle newspaper off of the coffee table in front of him, if there was one problem with being a vampire it was the endless amount of time he had at his disposal. When he was first turned it had been a blessing; he was able to get so much done since he had no need to waste any hours sleeping. The thrill of it had worn off after a decade however and now he often found himself bored with nothing to do.

He scanned the paper restlessly, skimming over an article about the new mayor of Seattle and his plans for cleaning up the area near the shipping port before coming to one that caught his attention. It was a missing person’s report for a teenage boy. Really there was nothing about it that should have caught his attention but it caused his sixth sense to tingle.

The same sense that used to tingle right before he went to death eater’s meeting. He stared at the article, trying to figure out what it was about it that was causing his feelings of unease. There was nothing...

Severus studied the newspaper for a few more minutes before the timer indicating his potion was ready to bottle went off. He rose fluidly and tossed the newspaper back on the table trying to shake off the slight tingle that went up the back of his neck.

He was just being paranoid, that was all…there was no reason to think that Riley Biers was anyone of import.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey hope you are enjoying so far the next chapter should be posted within the next 3-4 days!


	9. Simmering Suspicions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here is the next chapter...please be kind. I am not entirely happy with how it turned out but I can't stand to look at it any longer so hopefully it isn't too much of a diaster. 
> 
> Please read and review and all that jazz!

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_It is wise not to seek a secret and honest not to reveal it. -- Ben Franklin (1706-1790)_

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Green and brown whirred together; the trees were barely distinguishable from the mossy ground they grew from at this speed. Her olfactory sense in this form was far sharper than it was normally allowing her to catch and easily categorized the litany of different scents. Bark, mold, mildew, dew….vampire. It was the last one that made her slow her loping strides and circle back.

 _I caught something_ she sent her thoughts over to the pack mate that was currently on patrol with her.

The deep tenor (and wasn’t that a surprise? She had never thought that thoughts could carry a tone and presence before she had changed) of Jake’s thought bounced back to her, “ _What is it? A leech?”_

 _“Yeah….it’s on our side of the border too”_ she growled back in annoyance. Just what did those blood suckers think they were trying to pull? They had made the treaty for a reason. Wasn’t it enough that the bastards had moved here and effectively ruined her live and any chance at happiness?

She felt her wolf itch wanting to unleash her primal urge to find one of the sweet smelling biters and tear them apart. Of course she knew that it wouldn’t happen….she was far too obedient to break any of dear _Sam’s_ rules. She thought the last name with no small amount of bitterness.

_Come on Leah! Can’t we get through one freaking patrol without you going all maudlin and psycho on me?_

Leah sent him a colorful string of expletives, letting him know just how much she appreciated that comment. Hell it wasn’t her fault that the alpha bastard went and imprinted on her beautiful cousin.

One day they were happy and talking about when everyone was arriving for their wedding…the next, Sam was making out with her bridesmaid not even bothering to let her know they were over. It was just another kick to the stomach that it was one of her own family that betrayed her like that…she knew she had always had reason to mistrust her cousin. Guess she should have listened to that instinct.

 _Fuck you Jacob…I’ve been forced to listen to your pitiful whining about the stupid Swan girl for the past several months. Oh poor me…Bella doesn’t even care….running off to be with Edward…oh boo hoo…._ Leah threw back knowing that it was a little bit of a low blow but hell, she was sick of the pack ragging on her about Sam not having a choice. What bullshit. He might not have had a choice to love Emily but he sure as hell could have let her know before she caught him sucking face the week before their wedding.

There was silence over the wolf mind connect and Leah sighed to herself feeling a little guilty, _Look Jake I’m sorry that was low…ignore me just pissed off that one of the leeches would flaunt the rules in our face by stepping over the line_

There was a long minute of silence before she felt Jacob relent, _Yeah, I hear you…hang on I’m almost there…_

A few minutes later a large russet wolf loped over to where she was pacing and lowered his head sniffing around the area for a few second before letting out a low growl. _Your right…definitely a blood sucker, though I don’t recognize the scent….could be one of the leeches I haven’t met...”_ Jacob’s thoughts trailed off and Leah got flashes of a pixie like girl and the bronze haired vampire.

She knew that they must be Alice and Edward from the descriptions Sam had used to warn her about them when she had first turned. In truth she had never actually met any of the Cullen’s in person …she hadn’t actually met any vampire before. She had heard the story about how Jake and the boys had ripped the interloper vampire apart but of course hadn’t been included.

She could tell from the tense pacing of the russet wolf in front of her that he was an inch away from losing control…she knew that ever since the leeches and Bella (she felt her lips curl around her sharp teeth at the thought of the Swan girl…in her mind she was just as bad as Sam…stringing Jacob along…) had returned from Italy, Jake had been itching for a fight.

If he didn’t let of some steam soon he was going to end up exploding when his father was near him or someone else innocent…like her little brother. That was not acceptable. She paused when she arrived at a possible solution, _Well why don’t we go find them and remind them about the treaty…_

 _You know Sam will tear us a new one if we start something without his permission_ Jacob shot back but didn’t stop his pacing, Leah could sense the desire her words had caused.

 _Who say’s we’re going to start anything? We’re just going to drop by with a verbal reminder…if they attack first then it’s only fair that we defend ourselves. Plus we’ll just follow this scent and see where it leads…_ Leah wheedled and smirked (well as much as was possible in wolf form) when she felt Jacob break.

 _Fine…we’re just going to see where it leads…not going to approach them yet, at least not when we are outnumbered_ Jacob finally agreed causing Leah to let out a bark of glee.

 _I mean it Leah..._ Jake thought sternly.

Leah grinned back at him, _Yeah, yeah…_ before breaking into a run. This was just what she needed….

A distraction

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Severus felt himself sneer as he looked up at the wasted extravagance of the Cullen home. And that was what it was…wasted. Back when he was human…well far enough back that he still held naïve ideals and dreams… he might have been able to appreciate the clean lines and flowering garden out front.

True he had been little more than a child at that point in his life and would have latched onto anything to help distract him from his home life. Back then he was still able to hope for a happy ending…now, now he knew better.

“Stop trying to set it on fire with your glare Uncle Sev…it’s far too early to resort to that…yet” Hayden teased brushing his forearm to get his attention.

Severus ignored his charges nettling instead turning the glare on the cheeky teen beside him, “...not the only thing I have wish to set fire to” he muttered ominously.

It failed to have the desired affect (something that happened a lot when it came to the green eyed hybrid) instead of cowing Hayden it just caused his grin to grow wider and the teen danced gracefully out of the way of the smack he knew was coming.

Severus was not the only one scowling at the impish troublemaker. “I don’t understand _why_ you are in such a good mood” Jane hissed at him as they made their way to the front door of the glass and wood monstrosity before them.

Any retort that Hayden was going to make was interrupted when the door swung open to reveal a petite caramel haired vampire with a heart-shaped face. She was smiling at them, although the smile looked a tad forced, “Please…come in, we were expecting you” she said and stepped aside to allow them entry.

Hayden had to give her some credit at how natural her welcome sounded, if he hadn’t been trained by Ciedor in the art of lying and manipulation he might have believed it.

Hayden allowed his gaze to make a quick sweep of the room they’d entered. It was spacious…very spacious….and white. Honestly he thought they were trying a little too hard to distance themselves from the stereotypical vampire. He had always wanted to decorate his rooms back in Volterra with coffins and spider webs…he thought it would be amusing. Too bad Caius didn’t agree.

His attention then turned to the rooms occupants…he of course saw the two older ‘siblings’ Rosalie and Emmet he believed they were named . Natalie as irritating as she was could be useful for obtaining information…apparently they had graduated but still stopped by once in and while to have lunch with the rest of the Cullen teens. The stupid bint of course hadn’t realized just how ridiculous this was considering that she was not aware that none of the siblings couldn’t actually eat lunch. Hayden wondered why they would do this but figured it was on some delusional command from their leader.

His gaze faltered slightly when he saw Jasper sitting tensely on one of the sofas beside the seerer, but he forced himself to continue his scan. No point on getting caught staring like a pubescent girl at the gorgeous blond…especially with Severus in the room. He would never live it down after his uncle got over his fit of suspicion towards the other vampire, that is. The kings weren’t the only ones who took his ‘well-being’ seriously.

He noted a second blond male standing and approaching the group, he immediately guessed that this was the Carslie that he had heard Aro mention every now and again. The man radiated gentleness, although it wasn’t enough to completely masks the traces of self-righteousness beneath it.

Hayden let out a soft snarl when he spotted the irritating human sitting on the second couch clinging to the mind reader’s side. He couldn’t believe this coven…what part of ‘Volturi business ‘not for those unchanged’ did they not understand? Of course it was perhaps a tad hypocritical considering he was not exactly changed….

Although he had endured the god awful pain of his body trying to change, not to mention he had inherited many vampiric characteristics from it so he figured that covered him. He twisted his familiar ring in agitation; it was a habitual response when he was trying to control his anger. He had always been quick to ignite and had spent many hours with Severus learning occlumency not only to guard his thoughts but to help control his temper.

As effective as occlumency was at this, over the years it was becoming less and less proficient at dealing with his emotions. Severus thought it was because Hayden always had his shields up and his body was adapting to it…it wasn’t natural to suppress emotions after all. He had found that playing with his ring was far more effective than trying to re-strengthen his shields was in helping him regain control.

“What is _she_ doing here?” Jane spat saving Hayden from having to voice the same question.

Edward shifted uncomfortably but didn’t say anything. It was actually Bella that answered the question, “I am part of this family… I have a right to be included” she stated her voice sounding snooty and prim to Hayden’s ears, although he was sure she had meant for it to be soft and caring.

She went to say something else but Hayden decided that he had heard enough, “No” he cut her off, “…you do not have a right- as you put it…you’re beloved family might enjoy flaunting the rules…as proven by the situation that brought us here in the first place, but we do not. This is a meeting ordered by the Volturi…we will not accept an idiotic human’s presence.” he stated saying the last bit to Carslie with a stony expression.

Carslie sighed sounding weary, “Edward…please take Ms. Swan back home and then return”

Edward looked extremely tense as though he wanted to argue but one look over at their four intimidating guests had him nodding with reluctance instead.

“b-but…” Bella splutter with indignation, “…That-that’s not fair! _He’s_ not a vampire and is allowed to stay!”

Severus looked at the whining girl with distain, “remove her before I get rid of the problem completely” he drawled in a bored tone.

Bella gulped having no doubt about what he meant and shut her mouth glaring petulantly at Hayden before walking (stomping) towards the front door.

Edward let out an almost silent sigh and followed, leaving the remaining guests standing (or sitting) in tense silence.

“Was that really necessary?” Esme asked sounding distressed over the conflict going on between them and her family members, “I mean she will be one of us eventually…” she trailed off sounding unsure.

Her comment caused the snooty blond vampire and Jasper to glare, though Jasper’s expression changed back to neutral so fast that Hayden almost thought he had imagined it. Curious….were not all of the Cullen’s so happy with the thought of Edward changing Ms. Swan?

If so, the inseparable Cullen coven wasn’t quite as solid as they liked others to think….Aro would be pleased.

“Yes it was necessary, as Hayden said we do not break the law like you’re family seems to” Alec stated his voice flat, face expressionless. It was one thing about Alec; he always adopted this blank façade when he was around vampires outside the Volturi guard. No one outside their coven would ever suspect him of having a playful, childish side.

“No complaint here” Rosalie muttered under her breath earning her a disapproving look from Carlisle.

Alice cut in before Carlisle or Esme could add anything else that might make the tension in the air even more palpable.

“Shall we get to the reason we are all here? Or do you need to wait for Edward to get back? He should be back any momen…” She asked cheerfully directing her question at the twins.

No sooner had she finished and the front door swung open with more force then was probably polite. Edward came in not even trying to hide his displeasure at the situation.

“Ah….speak of the devil and all that….” Hayden stated perking up slightly now that his favorite target had returned. There was something about the sullen vampire that just begged to be pushed. Hayden had a feeling had he grown up around pranksters that he would have been great friends with them.

Edward sent him a hate filled glare and to his surprise received an angry look from Jasper. Shrugging off the family dynamics Hayden moved gracefully over to the now empty couch and settled down, “Ok…let’s get started yes?”

“Why are you here?” Edward asked immediately sounding eerily reminiscent of the conversation Hayden had with them yesterday.

Hayden decided to sit back and let the others handle this he was much more interested in observing the coven and getting a better understanding for how they worked…or didn’t work.

“I would think that was obvious” Severus stated snidely and Hayden bit back his shudder at the tone, he couldn’t imagine having Severus’s distain directed at him, it was enough to freeze the blood of much stronger men then he.

When none of the Cullen’s answered Severus continued, “As you were made aware while you were in Italy, you broke Volturi law informing a human of our existence…” he ignored the covert glances in Hayden’s direction, “therefore you must either kill or turn her, Aro has given you a year to do so…we are here to make sure that happens”

The last part of his sentence was almost drowned out by the exclamations of the ‘parents’ and Edward

“A year!” “That is too soon”

“Enough!” Hayden yelled over their protests, “yes a year…you are lucky to receive even that…Aro is not usually so lenient” he stated sharply effectively silencing the noise.

“Carlisle” Jasper stated in a warning tone.

Carlisle sighed, “Very well….a year…” he trailed off.

“Good…moving on, I have been made aware that there is a ‘wolf pack in the area?” Severus continued his questioning.

All of the Cullen’s seemed reluctant to answer that but eventually Jasper once again spoke up, “Yes…the Quileute tribe…they live on the reservation and we have a treaty with them..”

“Treaty?” Jane asked for the first time sounding interested in the conversation.

“Yes, we do not kill or hunt humans or cross the reservation lines and they leave us be, keeping our secret” Rosalie stated making it clear she did not approve of said treaty. Hayden had to admit it sounded that they didn’t receive much on their end of things.

“Interesting…” Alec murmured, no doubt imaging going on a wolf hunt. Hayden sent him warning look making the vampire pout.

“What are you doing?” Edward finally spoke up sounding more than a little frustrated. Hayden smirked at the expression. Since they had arrived he had cast something that resembled an occlumency shield but could cover several people extending it to cover the twins and Severus…thus preventing Edward from reading any of their minds.

No doubt rather frustrating for the mind reader, Hayden only had to engage his own gift momentarily to read Edward’s thoughts to see just how irritated the vampire was at the current situation.

While Hayden had always ‘touched someone’ to use his gift while he was with the Volturi, he didn’t actually need to for his gift to work. It was just another layer of defense that Aro, Caius and Marcus wanted to keep secret in case they ever had need for it. This was why Hayden was so confused that his gift activated without him wanting it to when he touched Jasper but didn’t when they weren’t touching.

Technically he should be taking Jasper’s empathy all the time if his gift was reacting to the vampire, not just when he touched him.

Hayden just smiled at the bronze haired vampire, “You should really learn not to invade other people’s minds without permission Eddie” he stated in a sugary tone, “Someday…someone just might take _offense_ ”

The rest of the family was staring in confusion between Edward and Hayden until a light of understanding showed on Carlisle face. He had obviously just figured out that Hayden had somehow managed to block Edward from not only himself but the rest of their group.

“May I ask what…what exactly your purpose is with the Volturi?” the leader questioned cautiously, an eager expression on his face.

“…or what the hell he is” the big vampire muttered under his breath.

The twins on either side of Hayden tensed and let out a snarl at the question. Hayden laid a hand on both of their knees, “Easy lex..jane…” he murmured.

Severus once again chose to answer, “You may ask…but we do not need to tell...” he replied coldly before turning to the others of his group.

“I believe it is time we leave…Demetri should be back from his….trip” he stated the last word hesitantly. Demetri had travelled out to Alaska to see the Delani coven and check up on things for the kings. He had been gone most of the week and was suppose to return later today.

All three rose swiftly, almost in unison which would have been amusing if it didn’t look so intimidating. The Volturi trained all of their members to be able to synchronize with each other and move as a single unit.

“Oh…and I assume you will let the little wolf pack know about us….tell them we look forward to meeting them” Jane stated sweetly just before she swept through the door.

Leaving a group of very unsettled vampires in her wake.


	10. Oh Sh&t

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter does not have jasper in it (soooobb) but no fear! he and hayden will get their time in the next chapter (I promise!). This is basically a filler chapter dealing with a few of the side characters. Hopefully it is still enjoybale! 
> 
> Leave me a review and let me know what you think! ;)

* * *

 

_“How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life” ―_ [ _Marcus Aurelius_ ](http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17212.Marcus_Aurelius) _,_ [ _Meditations_ ](http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/31010)

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“Well that was interesting” Alec stated sarcastically after they were securely back in their own home. Well home for now anyway….Volterra would of course always be Hayden’s ‘real’ home.

“hmmm” Hayden agreed not really listening to his ‘sibling’s conversation. It really hadn’t been that interesting of a meeting…not really. In truth they really hadn’t accomplished all that much (well besides thoroughly snubbing the Cullen’s and pissing Bella off, which in itself was a most worthy endeavor) but despite not changing much Hayden couldn’t help but fell somewhat invigorated by the whole thing.

And that was worrying him. He knew deep down in the recesses of his brain the reason why he had enjoyed it so…and it had very little to do with the stupid Bella chit or even the whole acting superior and ruffling feathers thing. No, he was pretty sure that a certain blond vampire was to blame for his current good mood. And he really wasn’t quite ready to deal with that fact….

It wasn’t that he had anything against finding his mate (for considering the weird reactions of both his magic and his traitorous body, he was pretty sure that’s what Jasper was) it was the fact of just _who_ his mate was. There was nothing per say wrong with Jasper; the vampire was stunning physically, and had an energy that Hayden found quite enticing. No, the problem was that Jasper was currently very much involved with the Cullen’s and a certain little seerer. And Hayden was no masochist.

That and the whole ‘vegetarian,’ denying happiness bit. He was a sadist either, and he didn’t enjoy seeing his mate in pain regardless of whether it was self inflicted or not.

Denial was not a positive quality in a mate…especially considering just who Hayden considered his family. No, he would not accept someone who was constantly going out of their way to delude themselves about who and what they were…it was not something he could stomach. To hate yourself so much that you turned your back on your very nature was not attractive. Not in the least.

Then there was the rest of the coven to consider. Carslie seemed like he could be a pleasant enough person, unfortunately that amount of virtue and moral the man carried around with him left him with a decidedly unpleasant sanctimonious air.

Then there was his wife…that she was loving and doting there was no doubt, but her amount of hovering seemed rather misplaced and smothering (not like he would know anything about that…cough cough Aro…cough cough Caius and Severus). She seemed like the type that would never recognize her ‘children’ as their own persons; adults who were mature and capable enough to make their own mistakes and decisions.

Perhaps it was the fact that although Hayden had grown up with numerous controlling figures in his life, it had been from a more distant, analytical standpoint. He had no doubt that the brothers, Severus, the twins and the rest of the guard cared for him but it wasn’t the cloying brand of motherly love that Esme exuded. Perhaps that was his real issue with her…he just wasn’t used to that kind of relationship; it left him feeling all together uncomfortable (because let’s face it… he might think of Jane as a big sister/mother figure; but the blond vampire was anything but maternal…well unless being acerbic and intolerant of failure qualified her for that role).

Not that he minded…he’d rather be made to run laps or hold a plank for hours then wrapped in some warm hug and cooed at…the very thought made his skin crawl.

He really didn’t know what to make of the ‘older’ two siblings; he had a feeling he would like Rosalie if he got to know her…she seemed bitter and sharp…rather like a female Severus truth be told. As for her husband he knew too little of the man to make a realistic judgment on his character. Though his gut told him the giant vampire was like a laid back version of Alec (well Alec when he was only with his family that is).

Alice, who was apparently with Jasper -‘ _at the moment’_ his mind whispered before he could ignore it)-automatically earned a red x just for that very fact. To be fair she was probably not all that bad though Hayden felt like the constant energy and hyperness he had observed at school, would grate on his nerves rather quickly.

He was much more used to the sedate and stoic countenances of the Volturi vampires (with the exception of Alec of course-but then the second half of the infamous duo might be exuberant and childish at times, but not to a degree that made Hayden want to swat him away like an annoying bug…he was pretty sure Alice would fall into the bug category given time).

Then there was Jasper himself….no! Not going there!….if he allowed himself to ponder the blond vampire it would no doubt eat up the remainder of his day. He shut that box securely and shoved it back amongst the ‘worry about later’ section of his brain (same section that held the wizarding world, his mysterious tattoos and his numerous oddities like his lack of aging).

Edward…well there was not much to say other then kill joy. It was painfully obvious that the vampire was so thoroughly repressed that any thought of enjoying himself was a serious risk for causing the vampire to have an aneurysm.

Last on the list; his girlfriend…the grating and soul sucking Ms. Swan.

Ok, he was being dramatic again…but something about the human just caused that reaction in him. He wasn’t sure if it was just her plainness and dull cow like eyes or if it was her attitude and assumption that she was worthy of the complete attention and devotion from century old dark creature that irritated him most. Well, that and she was still such a teenager-an over emotional, whiny one at that. He had no doubt that if she did not get her way, she wouldn’t hesitate to spill the secrets so stupidly entrusted to her. Sometimes he wasn’t sure who disgusted him more; the whiny sniveling girl or her idiotic, self-centered boyfriend.

He brought his attention back to the present sharply, he wasn’t in the mood to have to calm himself if his temper got the better of him again…he abhorred stupidity.

“…should be interested”

Hayden just caught the end part of Jane’s comment, “interested?” he asked ignoring the disapproving look Jane sent him when it was obvious that he hadn’t been paying attention.

“Yes. I was saying-as _you would well know if you bothered to pay attention-_ that the Cullen clan is a veritable gold mine of potential talent….and I’m sure you noticed that there are some definite cracks in their whole ‘togetherness’…I was simply stating that Aro would not be opposed to us using the Bella situation to… _widen_ those cracks” she stated with a evil smirk.    

Hayden didn’t bother to hide his answering smirk, “That would be a rather advantageous result….is that why you two were paying so much attention to their seerer during the meeting?” Hayden asked voicing one of the questions that had been nagging him since the meeting.

It hadn’t been an obvious thing…had Hayden not spent the last 26+ years with the twins he probably would have missed it. He had caught them both staring at the pixie vampire on more than one occasion. This latest explanation would of course cover why they had been paying the pixie vampire extra attention, it was well known how much Aro wanted to add her to his guard. .Although something told Hayden that it wasn’t the whole reason for the dreaded duo’s attentions.

“What? What are you talking about?” Jane demanded her face not betraying anything.

“…nothing. I just noticed that both of you were paying their seerer more attention than normal” Hayden answered casually though he watched both the twins faces closely to see their reactions.

Jane sniffed, while Alec fidgeted. “Of course that’s the reason” she finally supplied although she looked over his shoulder at the space behind him rather than in his eyes when she said it.

Hayden hid a gleeful smile, “Of course” he agreed agreeably.

Oh Forks was certainly becoming an interesting little town.

.Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Jacob was frustrated. No, that wasn’t true he was frustrated two hours ago…now he was crossing over to mutinous. Of course he wasn’t quite sure who he was directing his mutiny towards- considering he was the one who had come up with the idea (well that’s what he was telling himself, no way was he going to admit to being duped into this stupid idea by Leah of all people…hell, the pack would never let him live it down).

As all-accepting and welcoming as the wolf pack was purported to be by the elders…Jacob wasn’t blind…nor was he stupid. He realized that what the elders preached and what Sam practiced were two different things entirely. He knew (even if he and most of the guys chose to ignore it) that Sam was definitely not thrilled or welcoming to Leah when she joined.

Sam was never outright hostile to his former fiancé but there was a definite chill and cold shoulder going on…and coming from someone who knew what it was like to go from being someone’s whole world to being nothing in a moment, he knew how much this attitude must hurt Leah.

He also knew that Leah could be something of a bitch…of course it wasn’t hard to see that it was really just a defensive mechanism his prickly pack mate used. He hadn’t really known the girl before Sam and her break-up but he was pretty sure she hadn’t been nearly as bitter or caustic. He tried to make an effort to not act like the rest of the guys towards her…but sometimes she made it really…really difficult.

 _What the fuck is this? Why can’t we get past this point?_ Leah asked her own frustration evident.

And that was the real reason he was irritated at the moment. They had followed the un-identified vamp scent all the way back to this area of woods, but no matter how they tried to approach the spot where the scent disappeared they couldn’t. It was like there was an invisible wall up.

Jacob had shifted back long enough to try and cross in human form and failed miserably, he had discovered that he was able to toss a rock, a pine cone and stick across without any problem however. It seemed as though just he and Leah couldn’t cross….it was confusing and infuriating.

He briefly pondered telling Sam and seeing if any of the others in the pack were able to get across but just as quickly dismissed that idea. He was not up to dealing with Sam’s macho-alpha attitude at the moment…he had regretted turning down the Alpha position basically since the moment he had done it.

Oh well, there wasn’t much he could do about that now….well unless he wanted to fight it out with Sam (which he really didn’t want to do…as big of a guy and hot-headed that he was, he was an essentially peaceful dude) or start his own pack and well let’s face it…that would become him and Leah.

Not a dynamic he wanted or needed.

 _I don’t know…maybe it’s some weird ass vamp hoodoo or some shit like that. I say we confront the leeches where they won’t be able to attack us. At least till we figure out what the hell is going on”_ Jacob tossed back giving up the idea of being able to cross the invisible shield. He wondered if it was like Argent off of the Teen titan’s cartoon he used to watch…that would be kinda cool.

He shook his head. Focus! Right…so confront leeches, and then decide what to do….good plan sam (okay so he was a bit of a freak in his own head. Next thing he knew he’d be referring to himself in third-person…not cool).

 _Alright….plus it’s always fun to stir up white suburbia_ Leah agreed, Jacob could practically hear her villain like cackle. All she needed was a fluffy white cat…and to maybe shave her head. What was it with evil villains and baldness anyway? Vader, Luthor…dr. evil.

Okay once again not important right now. Though it did make him feel a little better that he wasn’t the only freaky one.

 _Let’s go_ he barked back and took off at a run. This should prove to be interesting…he only hoped he didn’t run into Bella. He really was not quite ready for that.

No, he was going to focus on finding vampires to harass and if he was lucky rip apart. That would be the perfect distraction. He couldn’t stop the smile that came even if he had wanted to.

And he really didn’t want to.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Edward couldn’t remember the last time he had felt so tense and out of sorts….okay, so he could it had been a little over two years ago when he had first caught a wiff of Bella’s blood… at that point in his existence it had been the closest he had ever come to losing control (oh sure there was that whole rebellious phase but he didn’t really count that considering he had wanted to hunt down those men).

Now though, he believed he was every bit as wound as back then and his normally straight backed posture was past the point of well mannered straight into the rigid territory. He cast a discreet glance over to where his girlfriend was sitting in the passenger seat; he had hoped to assuage her anger by driving her to school today instead of going with his family.

So far it looked like his attempt was falling flat- as witnessed by the petulant scowl and cold shoulder he was receiving.

He mentally sighed to himself trying to think of something to say that would break this tension. Of course it didn’t help that when she asked about the meeting he had been unable to tell her a thing. Literally.

He had tried…he honestly didn’t care if he pissed of the little asshole and the rest of the Volturi group -well maybe he did…he was past the whole suicide thing after all, but at the moment he was feeling pissy- hence his blatant attempt at breaking their rules. Unfortunately it would seem that he physically couldn’t disregard their demand that Bella not be told anything pertaining to their meeting.

Every time he tried to tell her anything that happened (and really it wasn’t like there was a ton of super secret vampire stuff even revealed at the meeting) he would lose his train of thought and be unable to voice the words. He had been so shocked the first time it happened he was sure he was losing his mind. It didn’t take him long to come to the only sensible conclusion he could think of.

It had something to do with that little black haired twerp. Edward hadn’t considered taking a human life in years (minus that one chemistry class of course) but Hayden was seriously testing his restraint.

But getting back to the point, Bella just thought he was purposefully keeping it from her resulting in her being even more pissed at him (regardless of the number of times he tried to tell her he couldn’t tell her anything-and wasn’t that a tongue twister).

As he parked the car he suddenly caught a familiar scent and gripped the steering wheel. Fuck. Honestly he really could not deal with _them_ right now.

“If I asked you to stay in the car would you?” Edward asked Bella in a tight voice fighting to keep his anger from showing.

Bella looked over at him and gave him contemptuous look before hopping out of the car and slamming the door with more force than necessary. Edward winced at the noise.

“Of course not” he muttered to himself. Why on earth would she ever make something easier for him? He used to enjoy the complication she added to his existence, lately however….

He sighed out loud this time and reluctantly got out of the car, walking at a clipped pace over to where he knew trouble was waiting. He saw a much larger Jacob Black standing at the end of the parking lot with his arms crossed and a foul glare on his face. There was a much smaller girl standing just behind him and Edward was momentarily stunned.

He had always liked Bella’s brown eyes, but this girl…no, woman’s eyes put Bella’s to shame. Despite the Rosalie bitch face the woman was wearing at the moment, there was no denying that she was beautiful. He pulled his attention away from the girl and tried to think of what might Jacob want. The wolves thoughts were rather jumbled at the moment and causing him to much of a headache to try and decipher. He was sure Jacob wouldn’t hold back letting him know what was on his mind anyway…might as well save himself from the migraine.

Surely this was not still over Bella? In all honesty he really didn’t feel like discussing her now or anytime soon…not until he figured out what was going on between them at least. No, It was most likely to do with Emmet accidently crossing the border line when they were chasing Victoria three nights ago….honestly he thought that they had already apologized and gotten over that.

He was glad that Carlisle hadn’t mentioned Victoria to the Volturi visitors during their meeting, knowing them they would just let the red headed monster kill Bella and be done with it. Their relationship might be a little rocky at the moment but he knew he still loved her and she him….right?

“What do you want Jacob?” Edward asked when he had finally reached the massive teen.

“I want to know why you leeches think it’s alright to break the treaty?” Jacob spat back looking like he very much wanted to for-go the words and throw some punches instead.

Edward briefly considered letting him do so…it wouldn’t be _his_ fault if the dog broke his fist. He dismissed it just as quickly although with far more reluctance…one word…Carlisle.

“Emmet already apologized for that…what more do you want?” Edward hissed back just as volatile.

“Edward…what’s he talking about? Jake?” Bella of course had to chime in just then.

“Not now Bella” Edward said hoping that for once she would just stay quiet.

Jacob apparently completely missed Bella’s comment still stuck on Edward’s reply, “Wait what? What are you talking about?” he asked sounding confused and unsure for the first time.

“Three nights ago…with…with that issue we told Sam about…what are you talking about?” Edward retorted feeling just as confused over the whole situation.

By now there was a fairly large group of students gathered around…no doubt hoping for a fight. Although they were still far enough away that they were not to be able to hear the words being exchanged. Not that he was surprised, had he been a delicate human, he too would not have come within striking distance of the fierce looking natives.

He belatedly realized he didn’t recall seeing Jacob or his companion there for the Victoria hunt….then what was the teen talking about?

Just like he had suspected Jacob confirmed his observations, “I wasn’t there that night…neither was Leah...” Jacob stated before adding an explanation at the sight of Edwards scowl at this information, “her mom fell and I helped her and her brother take her down to the hospital”

Jake wasn’t really sure why he was explaining this to his enemy (former?) because for some reason Edward really didn’t feel like something he was suppose to attack and kill. He noticed Leah had a confused look on her face as well and she was staring hard at the bronze haired vampire. What was going on?

“I’m talking about the vampire scents that crossed into the north corner of the rez…” Jacob stated finally arriving at the whole point they were there for.

Edward blinked, “We haven’t been in the north corner lately…was it… _her_ maybe?”

By this point Bella was beyond furious at the hard to follow and confusing conversation, she was the one supposed to be giving Edward the cold shoulder, _not_ the other way around. And what the hell was with Jacob? The last time they saw each other he couldn’t take his eyes off of her…now he barely acknowledged her presence.

She also didn’t like the way that her boyfriend was looking at Leah. Not one bit. She was about to interject her objections to the whole situation when she was once again cut off…and by none other than the teen she was fast coming to hate.

“Oh, don’t stress yourself Eddie…you’ll give yourself wrinkles” a smooth voice stated and Edward didn’t need to turn around to know that it was the green eyed bastard.

Jacob snickered at the teen’s comment watching with mild curiosity as the new comer approached them without a smidgen of fear or apprehension. His scent smelt familiar but he couldn’t really identify it…he wanted to say vampire but it wasn’t.

“Who are you?” he demanded trying exude ‘intimating badass werewolf’. Apparently he failed as the dark haired teen looked at him with unveiled amusement and raised an eyebrow.

“Hayden…and I am assuming you are one of the Quileute pack puppies” he stated looking Jacob over from head to toe. The gesture and the look in the teen’s eyes somehow made Jacob feel as though he was lacking. So instead he threw his anger back at a familiar target.

“You told him?” he asked Edward his voice full of accusation.

“Oh calm down…really is there such need for this childish feud? Hmmm…” he cast a dismissive look in Bella’s direction, “I really don’t see one”

Bella snarled at the implied insult.

“Now…to answer your question dear pup, it was me and my family that ventured across the border...however, since we did not make a treaty with your little pack I really don’t feel any obligation to follow some ridiculous rule” Hayden turned his attention back to the now slightly vibrating wolves.

Edward and Bella had both taken a precautionary step back, but Hayden ignored this and held his ground.

“Just who do you think you a-“ Leah snarled at the bored looking teen. Jacob’s face was twisted in something equally as angry as hers. Both appeared to be about a minute away from shifting.

“Someone much stronger and smarter then you” Hayden retorted losing all vestige of boredom, his voice like ice. He flicked his wrist and both shifters were shrinking back with a new look on their faces. Fear.

“Now…listen here. I will tell you this once and once only. My family and I do not want trouble from you or your tribe. You will pretend we don’t exist and we will let you continue bounding around your little forest will all your limbs….understood?” he asked the last question in such a sweet tone that it made Edward’s fangs ache.

Edward was more than a little shocked when both teens nodded meekly. What the hell did Hayden do to them?

“Lovely…” Hayden replied sounding cheerful once more, “Oh…I’m sure your alpha will not want to abide by these simple terms so tell him if he needs… _help_ understanding them that I am always more than willing to meet with him” he added with a sinister smile.

The conversation was finished with the arrival of one very unhappy principle and the banishment of Jacob and Leah from the school grounds. Of course Hayden simply smiled sweetly and gave the man big innocent eyes. He was on the receiving end of the principles apologies and reassurances (really Mr. Prince-he had decided to use Severus’s last name while they were in Forks- the school is not usually dangerous…if he gives you any more trouble…).

Edward stood there in a daze. He wasn’t sure what was confusing him more; the continued enigma that was Hayden Prince; what with his weird abilities (ones unlike Edward had ever seen or even heard about before) or his reaction to the she wolf.

It wasn’t until later in the day that realized that the woman, Leah- was what Jacob called her, didn’t smell like wet dog at all.

No, she smelled like something different entirely. Something he had basically given up hope of ever finding.

She smelt like his mate.


	11. Painted Faces

* * *

 

_Put a silk on a goat and it is still a goat. -- Irish Proverb_

* * *

 

Jasper was brooding…now normally he left all the brooding and sulking up to his brother; Edward had always been better at this sort of thing but lately circumstance and the people around him were overloading him with confusion, angst and…lust?

Yeah, don’t ask him about the last one either….why his brother had been a potent mix of anger, confusion and lust since this morning; Jasper did not want to know. He had assumed it was something to do with Jacob showing up, maybe having his rights challenged by the big Neanderthal (okay he didn’t really think that the Quileutes were Neanderthals, but he was in a bad mood at the moment so he would call them whatever the hell he wanted) had reawakened his feelings for his girlfriend?

In all honesty that was the only explanation that Jasper could come up with that fit his brothers turmoil emotions… unfortunately it wasn’t the one he was hoping for. And yes he could admit it…he had secretly been glad that things were rocky between Bella and Edward.

Other then Rosalie he was probably the largest proponent for ‘not turning Bella’…or even ‘not dating Bella’. The second because he was really tired of having to resist wanting to tear out her throat….most of the time he wished that he had been successful in doing so that first year the ‘happy’ couple was together. The first simply because he thought that she was bad news for all of them…they all became vampires because they had no choice what type of person does this willingly?

Not to mention he simply didn’t trust the girl…her emotions and her words didn’t always add up and he got the feeling that she was with Edward because of what it got her not because of how she felt. So yes, he was brooding.

He wasn’t even going to touch on how confused and attracted he was to the black haired boy who was currently entering the classroom. Nope. Not going to start obsessing about that. He might be brooding but he was so not going to pull an Edward and run away from or alternatively, stalk the boy. Now that was truly insane.

Mrs. Heinz shushed the rambunctious room made up of a mix of juniors and seniors, really having no effect at all. In the spirit of ‘coming together’ as a school, the Principle had the bright idea of having older and younger grades work together on a ‘project’.

English was the chosen subject and Juniors were to be paired with a senior student, while sophomores and freshmen were going to be tossed together…Jasper spent a brief moment wondering what poor soul would get Jane or Alec as a partner…that freshmen would likely need serious psychological intervention after this was finished.

“Class…Class quiet down now…boys and girls please stop talking” Mrs. Heinz was trying to be heard over the din of gossiping students. Jasper felt a small amount of pity for the mousy teacher…really she hadn’t been at this job for long, maybe a few years out of college and he somehow felt as though she really wouldn’t be in it for much longer. It never did for the students to smell fear…they were like rabid dogs in that way.

A sharp whistle broke out over the noise and everyone went silent instantly looking in the direction it had come from. “Shut the hell up and listen to the lady” Hayden snapped out clearly irritated --with what (his classmates, their rudeness, the teachers incompetence, or just having to be here period) Jasper wasn’t sure.

Surprisingly, everyone listened. That was another thing about Hayden that Jasper noticed…the teen, despite how petite and harmless he looked had a way of making those around him do what he wanted…and even more surprising was the fact that most of them did it out of fear or trust. Somehow the green eyed teen just radiated a threat yet made people want to confide in him. It was an oxymoron.

“um…uh…yes, thank you for that Mr. Prince…uh so now that I have your attention…” Mrs. Heinz began her rambling explanation for just what they were going to be doing for their project; something about Transcendentalism (and hadn’t Jasper done that a billion times already) and being assigned an important persona from that era.

Jasper tuned her out until she started to read out the partners list…and really this was the worst part of the ‘whole pretend to be student thing’, he had to suffer through being partnered with a human and not trying to tear their throats out. Yeah it was an issue.

Out of all their classes, English was the one class where Alice and Edward were placed in a different section so he couldn’t even try to talk the teacher into letting him pair with one of them (not that it would have worked anyway, what with them also being seniors).

“Mr. Cullen and Mr. Prince you will do a report on David Thoreau…It is to be at least 5000 words long and cover his life and how he added to this time period” Mrs. Heinz stated.

For a moment Jasper could have sworn he saw a look of unease pass over the beautiful teens face but it was gone before he could even blink and replaced by the confident, flirty look the teen normally wore. Hayden stood up gracefully and walked over to where Jasper was sitting (at the back as far away from anyone as he could without looking like a complete ass) dropping down into the seat next to him.

“Jasper” Hayden greeted, his tone was low and silkily and if Jasper was being honest with himself, it was doing something to him that was really not appropriate in the middle of English.

Once again Jasper was unable to read any emotion from the teen. “Hayden” he returned the greeting feeling a tad foolish but unsure what else he could say when his brain was trying to tie itself in a knot, “So what do you want to do?” he finally settled on shifting uncomfortably at the amused smirk Hayden sent him.

“Hmmm…I can think of _many_ things I want to do Jasper…” Hayden answered-- and did he mean it to sound as suggestive as it did? Jasper wondered glad that he couldn’t blush, “…unfortunately I really don’t think any of them would be…appropriate”

Hayden just seemed to smile wider at Jasper’s obvious discomfort, before he changed the subject and the tone of their conversation dramatically.

“I say we meet after school sometime this week…research the topic, then one of us can type it up while the other works on presentation?” he asked in a light voice as though he hadn’t been just flirting? (If that’s what you want to call it) with Jasper a second ago. Honestly it was enough to give the poor vampire whip lash.

“Er…yeah. Sure that works” Jasper managed doing his best to hide just how confused this conversation was leaving him. Dammit he was the empath…he wasn’t supposed to be the one getting all twisted around by feelings.

Hayden leaned back in his desk and studied the blond beside him for a moment, “So…why did you join the Cullens? From the stories I’ve heard about you, you weren’t exactly brought up the same” he asked. Jasper searched his voice for a hint of mocking or derision but found only genuine curiosity. Deciding to take a risk and maybe at least establish some type of rapport with the confusing human (and was he human? He sure didn’t smell like one) he tried to answer as honestly as he could.

“With my gift…” he started because he was sure that Hayden already knew about him being an empath it really wasn’t that huge of a secret and there was no way that Aro and his brothers didn’t know, “…I found it….” He struggled with a word that would fit how being surrounded by newborns everyday and being the one to dispose of them effected him, “…confusing” he finally settled on.

“Confusing?” Hayden asked an eyebrow quirked.

“Yes…confusing….my role for Maria was in a way similar to the Volturi’s role…I was to train the newborns she turned, and then get rid of them when they had served their purpose. It was very difficult to be surrounded by such volatile emotions day in day out. With humans…their emotions fluctuate and change but with newborns it’s so much stronger. Everything that they feel is that much more potent. At times it was very hard to distinguish their emotions from my own” Jasper admitted.

He was surprised with how much he was telling Hayden (again there was just something about the teen that caused you to either fear or trust him). He hadn’t even been truly honest with his own coven (for as much as Carslie wanted to believe that they were a family the word just didn’t seem right for the type of creatures they were). He had told the group that he had grown depressed because he felt guilty for killing the newborns that he did.

While there was a small amount of truth in that (he wasn’t heartless after all) the true reason he had become despondent was because he was constantly being overwhelmed by others emotions. It got to the point where he could barely stand to enter the same room as the newborns, much less train them. So when Peter had offered him a way out in exchange for his life, Jasper had agreed readily.

Then Alice came along and he found hope that he could exist within a group of vampires without going mental (it helped that they were much older and their emotions were better controlled, not to mention their lifestyle was more peaceful and less likely to cause tormentuous emotions…well until Bella came along that is).

He didn’t know if Edward had read his true reasons for joining the Cullen coven but if he had, his brother never mentioned it. Then again Jasper was careful with his thoughts around Edward…a left over paranoia from having grown up in the middle of a war.

“Yes…I could see how that would be…hard to handle” Hayden agreed softly, twisting an ugly ring on his finger as he spoke for once having dropped the mask of arrogant superiority. When Jasper didn’t answer the teen continued, “I felt how overwhelming the emotions that surround you were…I truly can’t imagine feeling that day in and day out” he admitted softly before his eyes widened in surprise.

Somehow Jasper was pretty sure the green eyed enigma hadn’t meant to say that last bit out loud. What did he mean? He had felt Jasper’s gift? Was this something to do with his own mysterious gift? Was it just him or could he adopt every gifted vampires ability…it would explain why Aro and the others valued him so much. To have that gift…the potential advantage was phenomenal.

Jasper was dying to ask the teen but somehow knew better so he let the comment ass without mention. Maybe Hayden would eventually trust him enough to tell him just what his gift was and about his mysterious past. To trust him enough to confide in him.

For some reason Jasper wanted that desperately.

He wanted…no needed Hayden’s trust.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Blood red eyes skimmed the surrounding forest quickly; the equally red headed vampire they belonged to perched precariously in the branches of a tree, allowing her a greater vantage point to survey the area.

It left such a foul taste in her mouth. No, that wasn’t fair; she really couldn’t blame the small little hamlet of a town for that…it was rather more its inhabitants fault. Or rather a certain coven residing in it.

Victoria had never considered herself an overly violent person when she was alive; she had actually been quite the opposite. Good at dodging and escaping confrontations…her instincts had always served to help her avoid such violence…well except for that one time. Looking back on it, she couldn’t say whether or not she regretted what had happened to her…the ambush of course was rather unpleasant but what she had become after was a worthy enough compensation.

She had never regretted becoming a vampire…someone faster, stronger and wilier then she would have ever become as a human. She had met James, and while he was not her destined mate-- they were happy together. He had a blood thirsty edge and love for games that she found attractive.

He was good and hunting and finding, she was good and running and evading…somehow their opposite natures fit together just right.

And now he was gone.

And it was all because of one pathetic little human….it wasn’t the fact that James had been murdered that infuriated her so…no it was the fact that he had been murdered to protect a human of all things. It was like killing a butcher to save a cow…it was just wrong.

She didn’t understand what was wrong with the Cullen’s….how could they possibly kill one of their own? It was just not done….not over something like this. She had no other choice but to get revenge for their actions. She needed to right this travesty….to fix it.

If James was dead, then there was no way that Bella Swan should be allowed to continue breathing. She had, had a brief moment of hope when she heard rumors that Bella and Edward were to face the Volturi…surely they would get justice for her love. It had been crushing when that did not happen. She didn’t know what the Volturi had said or done, but she knew that Bella swan was still breathing.

Well, if the Volturi wouldn’t fix this…then she had no other choice but to do it herself. It was this one consuming thought that had brought her back to this rainy little town. She had one purpose and one purpose only.

She didn’t care who or what she had to break to accomplish it. She would destroy them for what they did….

Whatever it took.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Jasper arrived home in a surprisingly good mood. It was rather disconcerting how his somber mood had suddenly lightened after a mere hour with Hayden. That fact really should have been telling.

The rest of their hour together had been spent with surprisingly light and interesting conversation. Jasper was a little shocked to find out just how educated Hayden was and they had quickly become engrossed in a fierce debate over whether or not Thoreau’s writings had any influence while the man was still alive.

Jasper couldn’t remember the last time he had enjoyed a class so much….he was almost disappointed when the bell signaling the end of the class went off. Hayden had left him with a parting smile, one that Jasper was desperately trying not to read too much into.

The ride home had been silent, it was that way more and more these days with both of his siblings lost in their own thoughts, while Jasper tried to keep his own thoughts from drifting back to the green eyed teen… he really didn’t want Edward in his head at the moment.

It wasn’t until they had pulled up to the house that any of them stirred from their own contemplations. Alice cleared her throat and looked at Jasper, “Jazz we really need to talk” she stated in a small quiet voice.

It really shouldn’t have been that earth shattering to hear those words, but considering just how little they had been talking in the past few months it made Jasper pay attention.

“Er…I will leave you too it” Edward stated awkwardly before all but bolting from car. Jasper knew from his brother’s expression that this was not going to be a pleasant conversation.

He turned slightly in his seat to look at his wife, “About what?” he asked although he had a feeling he knew where this was going.

“About us, Jazz…” Alice replied letting out a very human sigh, “…it’s…we’re not working” she stated and quickly began again when she saw Jasper about to protest. “No Jazz… we’re not and we haven’t been for a while. I still care for you and I know that you care for me…but it isn’t enough anymore” she said sadly staring beseechingly at him as though to will him to agree with her.

Jasper found himself swallowing. As much as he had known that this was coming…the distance the silence, it still hit him like a ton of bricks. He knew they had been having issues with their marriage; it wasn’t the same easy going- happy relationship it had once been, but he had never thought they wouldn’t work things out. That they wouldn’t talk it through and go back to how they once were.

They had been together for so long….he wasn’t entirely sure how _not_ to be with her. “D-did you see something?” he managed to ask forcing his on chaotic feelings down.

“…I-I don’t know” she admitted guiltily.

“You don’t know?” Jasper asked this time sounding skeptical.

“…like I said before I can’t get a clear reading on anything anymore….at least on most things…but I feel as though it is important that we don’t stay together…I don’t know why but I can’t get rid of that feeling….” She trailed off now studying her hands.

Jasper didn’t answer. He didn’t really know how to answer that statement…he was a mess right now, everything was changing and he didn’t know how to make sense of it all. His confusing interactions with Hayden, his bitterness and loneliness with his coven and his wife telling him that they were done. So he did the only thing he could think of in the moment…he agreed.

“Fine. Is that all?” he asked his own voice sounding glacial even to his own ears.

“Jazz…” Alice whispered sounding desolate, he was sure had she still been human tears would have been falling. But at the moment he didn’t want to deal with her hurt or sadness…was it too much to ask to for once be allowed to deal with only his own grief?

“Please….just leave” Jasper stated not looking at her…just wanting to be alone for two seconds to figure out his own emotions and what feelings were simply being transferred.

“Alright” Alice agreed softly opening the door to the car and stepping out, “I’m sorry Jazz, I truly am” she said softly before walking towards the house leaving him to sit in the car alone.

“So am I” he whispered back quietly when she was out of sight, “so am I”.


	12. Talking out of Turn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the longer then normal update...I will try to do better ;)   
> Let me know what you think of this chapter!!!! PLEASE!

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**** _Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.” ―_ [ _Eleanor Roosevelt_ ](http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/44566.Eleanor_Roosevelt)

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She had, had it. She thought she had been fairly patient and understanding these last few days but enough was enough! Not only was her boyfriend seemingly more interested in the arrival of the green-eyed freak then putting any true effort into mending their relationship…but now he was even more distant and distracted. And over what? Some stupid fight with the wolves?

At first Bella had thought that this was a good thing. Maybe he was getting a reminder that he wasn’t the only player in town who Bella could choose. Because of this, she had let him sulk for the remainder of yesterday sure that he would arrive at the right conclusion and show up begging forgiveness…and this time actually meaning it.

She was an important member of the family….it was completely ludicrous and unfair that he thought he could hide things from her. She was sure if Edward stood up to those power-hungry arrogant asses that the rest of the family would back him…they had when he first decided he wanted to date her after all. So really all he had to do was tell her what was going on…to confide in her and his family would follow suit.

They had banded together and taken care of James…they could do it again. Maybe she could even convince Jacob to back them…then the stupid arrogant jerk would be sorry for disrupting her life and treating her as though she was nothing but a condiment to the main meal. Hmmm…maybe not the best analogy to use when talking about vamps…

But somewhere along the line of Edward’s rediscovery of how very important Bella was to him, things had gone astray. For Edward had not shown up last night full of apologies and explanations…no, in fact he had not shown up at all!

Well this certainly would not do…before she was happy to let things lie and wait for others to realize their mistakes but it seemed as though that was not about to happen, so she would simply have to take matters into her own hands. And first things first she was going to find the instigator of this mess and confront the thing that had caused all of this trouble.

Let him know that she was not some weak pushover who he could simply dismiss and play with! She might not be as unique or ‘pretty’ as the usurper but that didn’t mean that she would just lie down and take it…plus she was pretty sure that he couldn’t kill her while they were at school.

Had she thought things through she might have hesitated a bit more but then again she never had been all that clever. That and the peacefulness of the Cullen’s had lulled her into a somewhat false sense of security.

She left her Trig class without waiting for Angela or Jessica to catch up, the conversation she was about to have would be best had in private…no point on ruining her ‘good-sweet girl’ image she had going, not to mention all they would be talking about was the person she was currently fuming about anyway.

“Oh he’s so mysterious…”

“Oh those eyes…”

“I wonder if he has a girlfriend…”

…bla bla bla. Gag her.

She knew that Edward wouldn’t be waiting to walk her to her next class and although she knew this the fact that she was right still irritated her. Most likely her pouty boyfriend would be outside sitting in his car listening to that damn ‘Claire de Lune’ tape…she swore if she had to listen to it one more time she would smash the thing…with a hammer…a really really big hammer…or maybe run it over with her truck….

She would disregarded her irritation for the moment when thing were back to how they should be-- when he came crawling back to her she would make sure that Edward paid for his negligence. She was done being ignored and pushed aside…not any more.

When she found Hayden, he was where she least expected him to be…well really she shouldn’t be all that surprised everything about Hayden Prince screamed asshole so why was she surprised to find him skipping class and smoking behind the bleachers surrounded by the rest of the stoners that went to Forks high school.

In truth she had kind of forgotten that most of these kids even went to the same school as she did-- they showed up to so few of their classes it was hard to remember they existed. Not to mention she kind of just dismissed them from her mind since she couldn’t understand that kind of irresponsibility and negligence they had to their own futures, not like her…she was constantly planning and plotting on making the future she wanted for herself happen. Hence her dating Edward.

And yet here Hayden was and he was looking as comfortable as hell smoking a bummed cigarette while ignoring everyone else around him.

He looked up at her when she approached sending her a lazy smirk and raised eyebrow. She knew he was challenging her…daring her to make a comment about where he was and what he was doing, she refused to rise to the bait…she had a purpose of hunting him down after all. She looked superstitiously at the rest of the ‘wall people’ (she was pretty sure she had read that term in a book somewhere) but decided it really didn’t matter if they witnessed a different side of her personality or not. It’s not like they were going to tell anyone…and even if they did, they were so obscure no one would believe them.

“Bella…come to take that massive stick out of your ass?” Hayden asked his tone polite and charming completely at odds with the crude words he voiced.

Bella flushed in indignation… he was just so-so rude! “No! I mean…uh, I know what you are trying to do” she stuttered before plowing on ahead with what she wanted to talk about.

“Oh?” Hayden asked drawing the word out and blowing a cloud of smoke purposefully towards her. Bella waved her hand in front of her in irritation, trying to send the smoke in another direction.

“Yes! You are completely transparent…If you think you can just swoop in and steal Edward then you are mistaken…he loves me and only me” she stated belatedly realizing just how childish that statement sounded but dismissed it as it still got the point across.

Hayden stared at her in disbelief for a second before he started to laugh, and laugh and laugh. Pretty soon he had tears streaming down his face in mirth, “Ed-Edward?” He asked gasping to catch his breath.

Bella glared at him, this was not the reaction she had expected nor was it the one she wanted…in fact it was making her doubt her suspicions just a wee bit.

“Oh darling….it’s not me you have to worry about when it comes to Eddie…” Hayden finally managed to say his laughter dying back to the odd chuckle now and again, “priceless” she heard him mutter to himself.

She couldn’t believe this! How dare he deny what was so obvious and make her feel and look like a fool (true it was only in front of the stoners but still!) oh she hated him!

Hayden was still snickering to himself as ground the stub of his cigarette into the ground before looking back at her with a smirk, “Oh darling, if you ever get your head out of your ass come back and we will finish this conversation…yeah?” he chuckled to himself again and straightened up from his slumped position before walking right past her in dismissal.

Bella stood there shocked for a moment. How dare he! How did this go so wrong? Oh…he thought she was a fool did he? Well she would prove him wrong…she would prove all of them wrong.

If it was the last thing she did. This she vowed.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Jacob sank back onto his now far too small mattress with a tired groan. He really needed to consider investing in a larger bed frame considering he couldn’t even lie down without his legs dangling over the end…damn growth spurt.

Ok, so he was actually kind of proud about his new found height but that didn’t mean it was without its drawbacks (door frames, bed frames….getting a theme here…). He sighed and let his eyes fall shut…he was so freaking tired.

Sam had been on a war path ever since he found out that Jacob and Leah had discovered a new scent in town and failed to notify him about it immediately. He had been going on and on about how _he_ was the alpha and it was _his_ pack, and how he wouldn’t stand for insubordination (whatever that meant). Jacob was just so sick of listening to the man…seriously he pondered just packing up his bags and leaving...

Not that that was really an option, what with his dad still here and for better or worse he was still part of the pack…no matter how much Sam wished otherwise. Things were just so confusing lately.

Just a few months ago everything made sense! He hated the Cullen’s, he loved Bella…Bella just saw him as a friend…simple. Perhaps not real enjoyable, but at least it made sense. But noooo…now everything was confusing as hell.

He had gone over and over the parking lot fight from yesterday and the more he reviewed what happened, the more uncertain about things Jacob felt. For one there was that weird green eyed kid….who didn’t really seem like he was vampire but at the same time did. What were they suppose to do about that? They defended people against vampires-blood suckers, not kids who seemed to just be incredibly species confused. Not to mention the kid scared the crap out of him.

Whatever he had done in the parking lot was terrifying. One minute he and Leah are getting ready to attack…aka: shift (which in retrospect probably wasn’t the wisest of choices considering the number of human witnesses at the time) and the next thing he knew it felt like he was never going to be happy again; like he was a moment away from being consumed by pure fear.

Whatever it was…Jacob never wanted to feel it again, that was for sure. And if staying on the kid’s good side was the only way to do that well then you weren’t going to catch Jacob pissing off the green eyed terror. Now if only he could make Sam understand this. But of course Sam being the dumbass that he was would never listen to Jacob’s advice. Probably felt that he had to prove himself as an alpha or some stupid shit like that.

Hell, if Jacob had wanted to lead the pack he would have already done so…though the reasons he hadn’t wanted to were getting harder and harder to recall.

Then there was Bella…surprisingly enough he hadn’t really felt anything when he saw her there clinging to the leech yesterday. Even when she turned her large (what he had once thought of as soulful) brown eyes on him he hadn’t really felt the need to rush to her defense. It was a good thing considering how she had treated him in the past…but still a little strange considering he had been sure he was in love with her at one point.

“Jake!” he heard his father bellow. Sighing he wrenched himself off of his bed and shuffled his way out to where is father was sitting holding the phone to his chest.

“Yeah?” Jake asked more a mumble then a question.

“It’s Bella…she says she needs to talk with you and that it is urgent” Billy stated his face blank of any emotion…Jake knew that his dad didn’t really approve of how things had gone down between the two of them, at the time he had been so quick to defend Bella’s treatment of him but looking back he now, he wasn’t really sure why.

Speak of the devil and all that. He groaned as he looked at the phone…maybe it was time to start standing up for himself, show everyone he wasn’t just a punching bag waiting around to be used whenever they felt like it.

He shook his head to the negative, and said in a half whisper “I don’t want to talk with her tell her I’m busy doing…something” he hissed at his dad.

Billy sent him a questioning look but nodded, picking up the phone again “sorry Bella looks like he’s out…hmm…yeah I’ll tell him…uh huh…yup. Say hi to Charlie for me…you too. Bye”

Jacob didn’t stick around for the inevitable questions his father was sure to shoot him after he hung up the phone, instead he quickly grabbing a piece of twine and heading out the door and for the woods; maybe a run would help him clear his head.

So intent was he in fleeing the scene he completely missed his father small smile and “About time” as he hung up the phone.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Severus looked up from the potions journal he was currently reading (there was a very interesting article on the 78 uses of Grindylow toenails in healing potions--before he had given up his potions mastery there had only been 67) when he heard the front door slam.

The sound of arguing filtered through the floor and Severus sighed before setting down the journal and slowly making his way down to greet his quarreling charges. Well ok, quarrelling was a bit of an over exaggeration, as if it ever got to that point Jane would simply whack the other two over the head (possibly until one or both were unconscious).

“How can you even consider going alone?” Alec asked stressing the last word.

Hayden snorted and waved his hand dismissively, “Oh please lex, I can handle one little vampire on my own…it’s not as if going over to do a class project is an invitation that says attack me please”

“You don’t know that Haddie…it could be a set up for all you know” Alec argued refusing to let go of the point he was trying and apparently failing to make.

“Alec…I love you I do…but do you really think so little of me? Do you really think that if Jasper were to attack—and I am not saying that he would…that brother is your insane theory—that I would not be able to lay him out flat in less than a second?” Hayden asked raising an eyebrow at the worried looking twin.

Alec paused; Severus could tell he wasn’t sure how to answer. To say that he knew that Hayden could defend himself would be admitting defeat in his own argument but to deny would only serve to piss off the hybrid even more and make him that more stubborn.

Severus sighed and decided it was time to intervene before things escalated, sometime he felt like he had never left his teaching position back at Hogwarts- the only difference was that now he was policing beings who were decades (if not centuries) older then the children they were currently acting like.

“And just what is Alec referring to Hayden?” Severus asked in his silky voice. The tone was a warning, one that he knew both of the boys before him would recognize. Despite the fact that Alec was actually much older than Severus; Severus had always acted as the parent figure to Hayden and the twins. While it didn’t always work on Jane it definitely did on the other two.

Hayden turned slowly to face the dour vampire, swallowing in a way that could be construed as nervous. “Nothing. He’s being a paranoid git is all…I am simply meeting with Jasper Cullen to work on a school project. It wasn’t even his suggestion it was mine” Hayden stated his tone defensive.

One look from Severus had Alec rethinking whatever he was about to say. Severus sighed again rubbing his eyes wearily. It was true that they were here to protect Hayden, but it was also true that Hayden was more than capable at defending himself against any attack that a vampire (especially a vegetarian one) could throw at him. He had always thought that the kings were a tad bit ridiculous when it came to his young charge; the boy was far from defenseless.

Still if something were to happen….well, it was just better that it didn’t. Perhaps he could make them compromise.

“Alec lay off…you know Hayden can take care of himself. Hayden stop whining, Alec is simply worried about you…Alec why don’t you and Jane go along when Hayden goes for his study… _date_ ” he said the last word with no small amount of distaste and held up his hand to silence the protest that he was sure was going to come from Hayden.

“Not to chaperone him but didn’t the two of you want to speak to the little future seerer anyway? I know Aro already spoke to you on that….” Severus trailed off.

Alec perked up at the mention of his and his sister’s additional task. It really wasn’t that huge of a secret that Aro wanted to collect the seerer to add to his guard. Why he had assigned the twins Severus wasn’t entirely sure but who was he to argue with Aro’s instructions? For whatever reason Aro had an uncanny ability to predict how to sway certain individuals into joining the Volturi (and oddly enough he was pretty sure that none of the guard had that certain gift…so for once it had to have been just luck).

Hayden sighed looking incredibly put-upon, “Fine” he muttered unhappily. But his pout didn’t last long as he caught Severus grabbing the other set of car keys. Demetri was using the second vehicle for ‘work’ of course.

“Where are you going?” the green eyed hybrid asked curiously, seemingly forgetting he was suppose to be holding a grudge at the moment.

“Seattle…hunting” Severus answered with the simplest explanation he could. It wasn’t a lie; he was going to Seattle to…hunt…sort of. Just not for dinner.

He had decided to go and investigate exactly what the hell was going on in that city, as several more missing persons had been popping up in the last few days. It spoke of something not human and Severus hated not having all of the information laid out in front of him, so he was going to go investigate himself.

Hayden shot him a funny look as though he didn’t quite believe him but shrugged and let it go. “K, be safe…” he stated before looking over his shoulder to where Alec was still standing, “Well if you are going to insist on being an annoying ass then go find Jane. I’m not waiting around for the two of you to be ready to go” he stated.

Severus hid a small smile when he heard Alec snap something back. For everything he had lost becoming a vampire…he couldn’t help but think he had gained so much more.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Leah glared with as much venom as she could muster back at her arrogant, pigheaded ex. She couldn’t believe the nerve of him sometimes. Who did he think he was telling her what she could and couldn’t do? Stupid ass.

And at the moment it was really the last thing that she needed. She was far too busy trying to figure out what the hell was happening to her, which seemed to all come back to what had happened in the parking lot. She didn’t understand…no, that was a lie…she didn’t _want_ to understand what had happened.

That heart swelling, floating, I-going-to-go-sing-in-the-shower-because-I’m-annoying-like-that, feeling when she looked at Jacob’s supposed arch rival. From the amount of whining Jacob had done about the vampire, Leah had expected to hate the bronzed headed leech on sight…so when the opposite of that happened…well let’s just say she was still struggling with it.

She knew that the leech was a maudlin, oversensitive, idiot and yet here she was practically swooning over his soulful eyes and pensive expression (and when the hell did she start going around thinking things like soulful and pensive?). There really was only one explanation for the whole thing.

Okay, there so there were two explanations: she had either finally snapped and reality was now nothing more than whatever her twisted, demented brain came up with…or she had finally imprinted. And how the hell did she manage to screw that up as well?

Not only was she the only bloody female who had ‘hulked’ as the Jared and Embry liked to say—idiots, but she was now imprinting on what was supposed to be their enemy? A friggen blood sucker? It wasn’t fair.

Life really, really wasn’t fair. So yeah…safe to say she wasn’t feeling particularly up to dealing with Sam’s shit at the moment was an understatement.

“…completely irresponsible. I am the leader of this pack! When there is a new threat you come to me! You do not go off half cocked with Jacob!” Sam was lecturing (okay shouting).

“Oh forgive us fearless leader. We have no brains and must rely on you to think for us” Leah muttered sarcastically.

Sam glared at her but chose to ignore it (not that this was any different from his normal attitude). Turning to the rest of the pack (minus Jacob since the tool had run off and was refusing to answer the pack summons…Leah wished she had the foresight to do that) Sam addressed the ‘newest issue’.

“From what I’ve seen through Leah and Jacob’s recollection…this…thing is dangerous” Sam stated gravely.

Leah snorted, “No shit Sherlock” she muttered, causing Embry to snicker quietly under his breath.

Sam continued acting as if he hadn’t heard them, which could very well be since the man’s head was so inflated that he rarely heard anything his pack members said. “We will not let a threat continue to exist…we need to take care of this” Sam stated in what Leah was sure he thought was a war rallying statement.

“No. Are you insane?” she asked deciding she was tired of being ignored, plus she wasn’t suicidal- no way in hell was she going to go and attack the kid…not after what she saw he could do. She might be prideful but she was far from stupid. “That is a horrible idea Sam…this kid is not someone we should mess with”

She didn’t look around at the rest of the pack but she could tell that at least some of them agreed with her, Sam just looked angry. Though it was probably over the fact that she had dared to speak out against him rather than the fact that there might be a true danger in following through with his plans.

“So what you’re on the leeches’ side now? Rather save your own neck then do what we are meant to do? Plus I have heard about this type of thing before” Sam sneered at her.

She didn’t answer because… well, what could she say?…she had imprinted on a leech after all, not that Sam or the others were aware of that fact yet…she had been very careful not to think about the bronze haired vamp when in wolf form…but it was only a matter of time. Instead she decided to address the second part of his statement. “What have you heard?”

Sam sneered again but this time it had a smug feel to it, “I have a cousin in England who used to tell stories about people who could do all sorts of weird things…I always thought he was crazy but from what you and Jacob have seen…” he trailed off.

“Well doesn’t that just tell you that we shouldn’t get mixed up in this shit?” Leah asked wanting to attack the green eyed teen even less now that he could possibly do even more weird shit. Weird things never meant nice fluffy hugs in her limited experience.

Sam turned away from her in a blatant snub making Leah fantasize about kicking him hard in a certain sensitive area…really hard.

“I am still the alpha of this pack and I say we defend ourselves against this threat. If anyone here as an issue with that then you will find yourself without a pack” he stated firmly.

Leah bit her tongue to stop her from saying what she really wanted to say. Oh, she would let him think he could win for now...but no way was she going to follow along blindly and have the entire pack pay the price for Sam’s arrogance. She knew that she could find at least a few allies on this matter.

From the frowns and uncomfortable shifting of Emery and Jason she knew they didn’t agree with Sam either. And she knew that Seth and Jacob would back her on this….still that was not enough to stop Sam from being an idiot.

Maybe it was time to see just how willing the green eyed teen was in forming an alliance…

So caught up in her inner plans was she, that Leah failed to see a certain annoying brunette sneak away from where she had been hiding behind a large tree, listening in on the pack’s argument.

The brunette had gotten at least one thing she wanted….possible information that could help her bring the freak down. Now all she had to do was approach Sam and offer her assistance. One way or another they would pay for underestimating her….

Of that she was sure.  


	13. It's all a matter of opinion

* * *

 

_Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.” ―_ [ _Ralph Waldo Emerson_ ](http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/12080.Ralph_Waldo_Emerson) _,_ [ _Emerson in His Journals_ ](http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/21630)

* * *

 

Sam frowned in consternation down at the half written letter he was currently sweating over. No…that didn’t sound quite right- he crossed out the line once more pausing trying to think just how he should word his enquiry. After a few more long minutes he tossed it down on the crowded desk he had set up in the spare room in frustration.

The desk he had set up because Emily was still trying to finish her schooling-- as much as Sam wished she would just give it up—after all it wasn’t like she really needed it for anything was it? What was the use? she wouldn’t be able to go out and get a job anywhere anyhow. He thought she should just be happy with the life they had now.

He was the pack leader after all and because of this he wasn’t able to leave the reservation and therefore she would‘t be able to either. But whatever…if taking a few long distance courses kept her happy he would hold his tongue.

Pack leader….he growled to himself at this thought. The others didn’t understand the responsibility and sacrifices he made to hold this position. They just went along with their lives as though everything would just work itself out, and then had the nerve to question his judgment! It was beyond maddening.

Of course it was so much worse that it was Jacob Black who was fueling most of the doubt-- had it just been his annoying ex, Sam wouldn’t have been all that worried. It was easy enough to discredit any of her concerns as bitterness over something he couldn’t control. But her malingering added to Jacob’s sneakily placed criticisms were causing him to lose some of the pack’s unquestioning loyalty.

It just would not do. He had put up with the little things for long enough, but to not tell him about something as big as a possible threat in their area—well, it was going too far. He would prove them wrong….prove that he was capable of making the right call; and the right call on this was to eliminate the threat.

Because that was what this weird lime eyed vamp lover was—a threat. He heard a tentative knock on the study door and he bit back his irritation at the interruption. Really he needed to have another talk with Emily about privacy and private time….

“What?” he barked perhaps a tad more forcefully then really necessary.

The door swung open and Emily stuck her head in causing the light from the window to catch on the disfiguring scar. Sam grimaced at this—if there was one thing he regretted it was losing his temper so completely that he had wolfed when she was near him. They might not have the picture perfect marriage that they liked to portray to everyone else, but he had never wanted to actually hurt her…it was one of the reasons why he was so determined to eliminate this new threat.

He knew what it felt like to watch those under your responsibility get hurt…he wouldn’t sit by and watch it happen again, no matter what Leah or Jacob or even the elders thought.

Emily’s soft voice interrupted his regretful thoughts “Sam….Bella is here she said that she needs to speak with you and that it is important…” she trailed off sounding slightly doubtful.

It was no secret (well at least in the pack) that Emily wasn’t Bella’s hugest fan. Sam personally thought that she enjoyed being ‘the female’ that the pack doted on and that she saw Bella as a threat to this position. It wasn’t as though she was rude to the girl, but there was some definite tension between the two of them.

Of course they passed the ‘vamp-girl’ and ‘wolf-girl’ off as a joke, but both knew that it really wasn’t. Sam sighed spinning his chair so that his legs were no longer trapped beneath the desk. What the hell could Swan want? In truth Sam himself didn’t really care for the girl.

True she had her uses…like making Jacob so preoccupied with his angsty teenage poetry that he couldn’t contemplate challenging Sam for the leadership role. Yeah, that had been a great use for the stupid girl…of course somewhere in the last few weeks something had changed and Jacob had started spending less and less time emo-ing over her.

“Ok, send her in. I’ll see what she wants” Sam stated, albeit reluctantly.

Emily just nodded and moved away from the door; Sam could hear some murmured conversation before the door opened again this time revealing a nervous looking Bella Swan.

“Bella” Sam greeted motioning towards a second file filled chair. Bella nodded back in greeting, wrinkling her nose slightly at the sight of the mess before shifting a box onto the floor and perching stiffly on the edge of the chair.

After a long stretch of awkward silence, in which Sam stared at Bella and Bella studied a hang nail on her right thumb, Sam decided that he apparently would need to be the one to break said silence, “so….what can I help you with?”

Bella shifted looking a little nervous, “um…so I heard-I heard that you were worried about the new group in town...the one with that _kid_ Hayden?” she asked lingering on the word kid as though it was a particularly horrible life ending disease.

Sam arched his eyebrows….where could she have possibly heard that? Unless…unless Jacob was skirting pack law again and telling her things that really weren’t any of her business…

“Who told you that? Where did you hear that?” he questioned the words coming out hard and demanding.

Bella squirmed again but he could see the stubborn willfulness that he both admired and hated in her coming out as she straightened her back stiffening, “It doesn’t matter where I heard it…I have my sources. Anyway I just wanted to say that from what I have seen… that your concerns are completely warranted. Hayden is a menace and a danger to everyone. He is manipulating and influencing not only your own pack members but the Cullen’s as well. They might be obeying the treaty they made with you now…but if you let him continue to whisper poison in their ears it won’t be long until they don’t..” she stated her tone becoming angrier and angrier as she spoke, “…who knows maybe if he’s not stopped he might be able to convince them to attack your pack” she added the last lightly, though her dismissive tone didn’t fool anyone.

Sam wasn’t an idiot, he could tell that Bella had her own agenda in telling him this…but just because she did, didn’t make her words any less true. He knew that this new kid could be a problem and if even someone as dense and flighty as Bella swan could see it…well, it was all the reason he needed. Still he was a leader it wouldn’t hurt to get a little more information on this new enemy…hence his letter to his cousin.

“I see….” He stated thoughtfully leaning back to regard the girl in front of him trying to decide on whether or not he should trust her. Well, maybe he could make use of her yet, even if he didn’t trust her father then he’d trust black. “I am afraid you might be right” he stated after a moment and delighted in the way that she leaned forward eagerly to hear his next words—see this is how his pack should react; listening and cherishing his opinion!

“I think this-this boy has already started to warp the minds of a few of my pack members….” He confided his tone taking a conspiratal edge.

“I…I hate to say this, but I think he’s already gotten to Jacob and Leah…” he continued this time with a saddened sigh.

“I knew it!” Bella exclaimed, “That makes complete sense! I noticed how Jacob has been acting differently lately….he didn’t even answer or return any of my calls!” she stated clearly affronted by this fact.

Sam didn’t tell her that he was pretty sure that Jacob had just finally realized that she was stringing him along and decided that she wasn’t worth it…while true, it really wouldn’t suit his purposes at the moment. So instead he nodded looking both understanding and regretful at his beta’s actions.

“Yes….I’m afraid so, I want you to keep trying though. I think it would be best if we could distract him from this whole situation…perhaps remind him of your… _friendship?_ ” Sam suggested, knowing that Bella would catch on to his meaning. He was heartened when he saw the calculating gleam in her eye.

See she wasn’t a complete waste of space!

“Ok…do you have a plan to take care of Hayden then?” she asked innocently going back to studying her hangnail.

Sam couldn’t help but think that she knew more then she was letting on but he pushed aside his suspicions, after all she was just a silly little girl—true she had her uses, but he was the true mastermind behind this. Still it couldn’t hurt to be a bit cautious.

“Yes I believe I do” he stated looking back down at the half finished letter, suddenly knowing just what he was going to ask or imply to get this threat dealt with.

“I believe I do”

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Hayden sighed, determinedly pushing his irritation away. As if Severus basically siding with Alec wasn’t annoying enough… but now Jasper was being all ‘my neighbor killed my cat, ran off with my wife and framed me for stealing the plastic lawn ornaments’ and frankly Hayden was over it.

“Okay Edward…why are you here and what did you do with Jasper” he asked leaning back precariously in the bar stool located in the Cullen’s kitchen that he was currently sitting in. He inwardly snickered as he imagined Edward’s irritated face at hearing Hayden’s comment. Sometimes it really didn’t pay to have enhanced hearing.

Jasper’s head shot up, a confused expression on his face making in clear he wasn’t following along with Hayden’s slightly wonky reasoning. Not that Hayden could really blame the blond vampire…there were very few who could keep up with tangential thought process.

Hayden sighed again letting the chair drop back to the floor with a thud, before turning to the confused vampire, “What I am trying to ask is what the hell is up? You have been even more mopey and depressing then your brother and he is basically the poster boy for the before picture in a Lorazapam commercial” (what? he had a lot of time to waste back in Volterra, so what if he took an abnormal amount of interest in human drugs and their effects?)

Jasper sent Hayden what he probably thought was a stellar mind your own business glare—unfortunately for Jasper, Hayden lived with Severus and Jane so it was rather ineffective. “Nothing…I’m fine”

Hayden snorted holding up his hands in a placative manner when Jasper’s eyes narrowed, “uh huh….completely fine…that’s why you haven’t written a word for our project since we sat down—which is due in little under two weeks by the way—and have basically crushed that poor pen to an untimely death” Hayden stated gesturing towards the mangled metal writing device.

Jasper sighed in defeat but didn’t say anything. Hayden had to resist smacking the blond for his stupid stubbornness…he was beginning to understand Jane’s foul moods when she was trying to persuade him to do something he didn’t want to do, just a little better.

“Oh come on….it can’t be all that bad…what did you forget to catch your little seerer her favorite rabbit or something? Forced to sleep on the couch?” Hayden prodded, not really sure why he was bringing up the wife…considering how she was currently preventing him from pursuing his mate. Not that he was entirely sure he wanted to pursue the blond at the moment…perhaps a little…er…re-educating was needed before that happened—even if the annoyingly hyper pixie wasn’t in the way.

He didn’t expect Jasper to slump over at his comment looking for all the world, defeated. Wait…what had he said? Could it be…?...no…

Suddenly Hayden wasn’t really sure what he was supposed to say or do…”uh…just a joke, look never mind we can pick this up another da…” he started wanting to break the quickly becoming awkward tension that was engulfing them.

“Yes…” Jasper stated seemingly out of the blue.

“er…yes?” Hayden asked not really sure what the vampire was confirming. Yes, he wanted to leave their project for the day? Yes, he was in the…what was that saying again?—oh right, in the dog house with his wife?….

Jasper cleared his throat still studying the almost blank sheet of loose leaf in front of him, “Yes…I’m-we’re…me and Alice are taking a break” he muttered sounding a tad bitter in Hayden’s opinion. Leading the green eyed male to assume that it wasn’t Jasper’s idea to ‘take a break.’

“Ah...” Hayden replied not really sure what he was suppose to say to this, “Why?” he finally asked when Jasper didn’t reply to his outstandingly sensitive reply.

Jasper shrugged, “I don’t know…she-she said that we weren’t right for each other….guess she thought we were holding each other back” he stated trying to sound cavalier and failing miserably.

Hayden decided that perhaps he could at least try and do the whole Dr. Phil thing (and really this was just another thing proving that humans were inherently stupid—or perhaps naïve, because really- who listens to some washed up bald guy for advice on how you were screwing up your life?). “Well were you?” he asked. See, this whole lending an ear thing wasn’t so hard…

Jasper looked as though he wanted to deny it but at the last second sighed again (living with the Cullen’s had obviously made the blond act far more human than was healthy), “…I-I…yeah.” He finally stated sounding oh so eloquent.

“So…what’s really bothering you about this then?” Hayden asked, this time genuinely curious to the vampires answer.

Jasper shifted looking uncomfortable, and Hayden realized what the issue was. He waved his hand negligently, erecting a silencing ward around them “there now no one can hear our conversation…not even your _lovely_ family”

Jasper looked both surprised and relieved, “…I guess I’m not really sure what—how to be now” he stated after a few long seconds. He seemed surprised with his own candor. But then again Hayden had a way of making people confess things they normally wouldn’t. Demetri had even jokingly stated it was his second gift.

“What do you mean?” Hayden asked slightly confused to the vampire’s statement.

“I-I well, I entered this family because of Alice…because she was my anchor. Without her I’m not sure I will be able to—well follow this lifestyle” Jasper admitted the last bit softly sounding embarrassed over what he likely viewed as a weakness.

Hayden leaned back for a moment regarding the vampire while trying to decide how he should approach this…in the end he decided to just be frank. “Tell me Jasper, why do you think you _should_ follow this lifestyle?”

Jasper looked surprised at the question, though really the blond shouldn’t have been. It wasn’t as though Hayden had ever given the impression that he approved of the whole vegetarian diet thing…kind of obvious when he was buddy-buddy with vampires like Jane and Alec.

“It-Well it’s just right” Jasper stated though he looked rather unsure of the truth behind his statement.

“Jasper you are a vampire. Vampires feed on blood… _human blood_ …how is it any different then human’s eating meat? You shouldn’t have to make concessions on who or what you are”

Jasper looked conflicted at Hayden’s statement, “…but Carslie…” he began.

Hayden interrupted whatever weak justification the vampire was about to make, “…is his own person. He makes his decision based on his beliefs…you should do the same”

Jasper didn’t say anything but Hayden thought that his words had at least been heard. So he decided to let it go for the time being…he had planted a seed, now he would just allow it to fester.

“Just give it some thought -yeah?” Hayden stated, before flipping the book in front of him open, “Now…if you have no further objections, shall we get some actually work done?” he questioned his tone teasing.

It seemed to work to break the heaviness their conversation had caused, “sure…” Jasper replied turning back to his text looking contemplative.

Yes….the seed was planted. And with the amount of rain lately…Hayden really didn’t think it would take long for it to grow.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Victoria glared at Riley as the newborn stuttered and fumbled his way through what she was sure he thought was a decent apology. Because really why should she think that he could be anywhere near competent enough to keep a few dozen other newborns in line?

Her mistake obviously. Silly her…honestly if there was one thing about James that she seriously missed, it was the fact that he actually had a brain…and was able to use it (well most o the time). Why couldn’t she find a partner who was as intelligent and as cuttingly clever as she was?

“Stop! Just shut-up…I don’t care why it happened. Just.make.sure. it.doesn’t.happen.again” she bit out glaring at the incompetent fool in front of her.

“But…” Riley started to protest. Most likely to try and convince her of his own innocence in the quickly growing death toll. She of course knew that a few missing persons were necessary—she needed to make vampires out of something after all, but the amount of drained bodies the idiot newborns were leaving for just a _nyone_ to find? No…completely unacceptable.

“Enough….go bore someone else, didn’t you just turn a new one? Go instruct her or something “Victoria stated waving her hand in dismissal. Though, it looked more as though she was trying to shoo away an annoying fly.

“Bree…” Riley stated mistakenly thinking that she actually cared who the newest addition to their ‘coven’ was. She really, really didn’t.

“Yes…whatever…just leave” Victoria stated turning away from him and stalking in the opposite direction from where he was standing gaping like a fool.

She fought the urge to rub her temples wearily…if she had been human, she was sure she would have a massive migraine at the moment. It wasn’t until she was a few blocks away that she noticed it.

It being, the shadowed presence that was following her.

Had she been anyone else, she probably wouldn’t have picked up on it…but then again she had lived with James for how many years and when your ‘partner’ had a bad stalking habit you tend to pick up on when you’re the prey.

She slowed down as casually as she could, taking time to study a window display advertising some ‘super garish looking yellow handbag that was on sale for the exorbitant fee of 3$” in the local pawn shop. Sure that she had the intruder by their hair, she spun around only to be greeted by an empty street.

How? How was that possible? She was sure that she had been sly enough to out maneuver her pursuer….

She nearly jumped at the sound of the silky voice that was where she had just been looking, spinning once again this time in shock.

Before she could react the voice stated, “We need to talk”


	14. Wielding Weapons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! so as I stated for my other story...sorry for the longer wait time. I was having issues with my internet connection-boo! 
> 
> Anyway here is the next chapter please let me know what you think! (ps.. I am thrilled with the response to this story so far! the number of followers and favorites is heart warming!)
> 
> oookay...on with the story.

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[ _No_ _amount of guilt will change the past but if taken as lesson it will make the present worth satisfying and will be source of mental peace._ ](http://www.searchquotes.com/quotation/No_amount_of_guilt_will_change_the_past_but_if_taken_as_lesson_it_will_make_the_present_worth_satisf/648435/)

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Maybe Hayden was right….and not just about the whole’ Anne Rice vampire’- good…’teenage girl fantasy vampire’- bad, thing…maybe he was turning into Edward. Now there was a scary thought.

But he had to admit he found himself broody and sullen a lot lately-- of course shacking up with your ex-wife and having a coven leader who had a determinedly ‘everything will work out for the better’ outlook on life might have been leading him to wanting to lock himself up in a dark room while listening to trippy, yet depressing lyrics about rain, dying and losing one’s innocence.

Really, after listening to a few such songs it was surprising that teen suicide wasn’t more common than it was. Oookk….maybe it was time to take a step back. Gain a little perspective and all that jazz.

So what if his partner of over half a century had just dumped his ass with really no closure inducing explanation? That’s ok. They hadn’t been getting along all that great lately anyway. Plus this way he might actually end up with someone who he could actually surprise once in a while on their anniversary or make believe that he really had made that reservation and the hostess was just dumb and forget to mark it down….

Next on the list: the disconnect he was feeling with not only his ex-wife but the rest of his family. It was fine…he never really had clicked with them anyway, so it shouldn’t really be bothering him now right?

That annoying little whispering voice in the back of his head kept asking irritatingly, thought provoking questions….like maybe the reason he didn’t click with his family was because he wasn’t meant to be part of this family? Maybe he wasn’t cut out for a peaceful life….maybe he just really wanted to run away with some cocky green eyed boy?...whoa okay backing up.

While he was trying desperately not to dwell on the doubts that these questions kept dredging up he didn’t try quite as hard on the last one. He could admit it…he found Hayden more than just attractive. There was a definite pull he felt towards the teen and even the air of mystery and vagueness that came with the green eyed boy didn’t dissuade that feeling. If anything it just made it stronger…like if he could just figure out the other boy then maybe, just maybe he would lose interest?

Deep down, he knew that this would not be the case. He had been going back and forth ever since his ‘talk’ with Hayden, on whether or not he should talk to Carslie. While it was true that the other blond vampire was infinitely more knowledgeable on certain things (for example figuring out if that certain someone was your true mate or simply a singer) Jasper was still hesitant to approach him.

While Carslie and Esme preached the whole tolerance and accepting everyone bit, Jasper couldn’t help but wonder just how much truth was in it. After all, while Carslie saw him as a son (or at least Jasper was pretty sure that he did) he still only accepted the blond after Jasper had committed to an animal diet. With Hayden’s connections to the Volturi, not to mention the other boy’s attitudes on vegetarianism and humanity as a whole (something that just added to Jasper’s suspicions on whether or not Hayden was actually human) he somehow couldn’t see Carslie being accepting of the teen.

While the family had accepted (well most of them) Bella, at times Jasper wondered if they had only done so because it fell in-line with Carlisle’s beliefs and lifestyle. So, yes he was a little hesitant about talking to his ‘father’ about Hayden possibly (ok…so probably) being his mate.

He knew that Hayden had to be his mate or his singer due to the pull he felt, not to mention the weird thing his gift did around the teen (though it seemed as though none of his families gifts worked around Hayden so it wasn’t absolute proof) but something in how Hayden looked at him when the other boy didn’t think he was watching—made Jasper feel that he was different. And while being his singer would cover the whole wonky gift thing, considering Jasper had no urge to turn him into a portable tetrus bag kind of disproved that suspicion.

So….mate. Even the word sounded weird in his mouth. It wasn’t as though the concept of having a mate was foreign, hell to a vampire it was almost instinct. It was the fact that he had spent so much time with someone else who was apparently not his mate that was throwing him. Because as much as both he and Alice knew that they were not true mates…over the years it had been easy enough to convince himself otherwise.

Probably why he was fighting the whole breakup thing so hard.

He sighed to himself sending a silent prayer up to whatever deity happened to actually exist and answer such pleas (really he wasn’t all that picky) that he would be able to sort his head out prior to meeting up with Hayden again.

Then again it probably didn’t matter if he got things sorted because every time he was around the green eyed enigma things just seemed to get all scrambled again.

_hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh_

There was no simple way to describe him at the moment….while Edward had always known he was the more emotional, introspective one of his siblings, the way he felt at the moment was beyond anything he had felt before. And that included his first meeting of Bella Swan, the subsequent Jame’s debacle and finally the Volturi fiasco.

And as much as he wanted to blame his confusion and uncertainty on the Volturi and more pointedly the annoyance that was Hayden, he knew he couldn’t. The problems between him and Bella had existed before their arrival in Forks; hell, they were there even before the mistaken suicide attempt in Italy. He had just been so caught up in the idea of finally having someone that he pretended that everything was perfect.

He had to admit that he was pretty skilled at lying to himself….and yet after seeing _her_ , he really couldn’t continue telling himself that Bella was his mate. There was no way to compare the draw he felt towards Leah (he had picked out her name from Jacob’s mind) and how he felt about Bella. And that was even before taking into account how weird Bella had been acting as of late.

He never thought of her as clingy before…but then again it could be said that before everything had started going south that he had been just as clingy and codependent. Now that he was questioning things, all of their past behavior was starting to seem a tad….unhealthy.

He was just so confused at the moment…he hated the thought of hurting anyone, but given the situation he really didn’t see how that could be avoided. He kept telling himself that he had to sit down with Bella and tell her the truth, admit that his feelings had changed. He honestly wasn’t even sure if he was going to bring up the whole ‘I found my mate’ thing or not. It seemed like a tad cruel to do so.

Maybe he should just focus on how their current relationship had changed instead? And as much as he knew he was partially to blame for this, there are two people in a relationship. Her constant flitting between him and Jacob certainly hadn’t helped things…

But every time he worked up the nerve to tell her the truth she would say something or do something that would remind him how he was her whole world. A look, a brush of her hand, a few meaningful words…if he didn’t know that she was incapable of being manipulative, he would have sworn that she knew what he was going to tell her and was sending him reminders on purpose. But that was ridiculous….

The trouble was that he was still feeling incredibly guilty for leaving her last year, not to mention the whole Volturi thing…because of him she literally had no choice in becoming a monster. How could he possibly abandon her after sentencing her to such a fate?

Even if he had just met his mate and the very thought of her made him feel like his heart was once again beating and his palms sweating. He may or may not have filled up two entire notebooks waxing poetically about her wild beauty….two notebooks which were now locked away very securely in his hidden bedroom safe (his life wouldn’t be worth living if Emmet ever found them).

Either way he knew that he would not be able to stay away from Leah…hell, he hadn’t even exchanged words with her yet and he was already smitten. Which could be why despite telling Bella that he was off hunting, he found himself hovering near the Quileute border. If he happened to see Leah out on patrol then it really wasn’t his fault…right?

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Leah felt herself freeze mid-bound as she caught the regrettably familiar scent. Regrettable because she was still not entirely sure how to deal with the newest twist in her life…well that and the fact that she was in wolf form so her thoughts weren’t exactly private at the moment. Which was unfortunate considering where her thoughts were taking her when she caught that scent, yeah…not exactly what she wanted shared with the boys.

At least Sam had been distracted enough lately that he let Paul make the patrol schedule and Paul paired her and Jacob together again (even though she was pretty sure that was exactly the opposite of what Sam wanted…then again Sam’s logic never really made any sense to her so who knew?). While it would still be embarrassing if Jake heard the direction that her thoughts were taking in regards to a certain vampire with the same disposition of Edgar Allen Poe (hey, she paid attention in English!), at least she could trust that he wouldn’t immediately go running to Sam with the information.

Then again she wasn’t sure that his reaction would be that much better considering the amount of animosity between Jacob and Edward over the stupid Swan girl….and there was the second issue with this whole imprinting thing (well besides that dear Edward was her natural enemy, that is)…Bella. As far as Leah was aware the two of them were still very much together and going strong.

If the images that Jacob had been broadcasting for the past several months (during his whole jilted lover phase) were anything to go by, then she really had no chance. Figures. First losing her fiancés to her cousin (which looking back on things she wasn’t all that upset considering what a ginormous ass wipe he turned out to be) and now imprinting on someone who had basically declared another woman their soul mate. It was sickening.

She had recently found new sympathy for Jacob’s plight….the pictures of Edward and Bella together were beyond revolting. It was like watching a glitterized, sunshine and rainbow filled train crash. Everything looked so friggen sparkly and perfect but you just knew that it could only end in blood and carnage. Leah figured the blood and carnage would be preferable to the former…she had always preferred watching killer zombies over Disney anyway.

She sensed movement to her right and just _knew_ it was him. Well, she might as well shift now in relative privacy so that she could speak to him the first time actually clothed. She might not be a prude when it came to such things but even she wanted to actually speak to the man before getting naked.

After a quick shift and hurried dressing, she moved closer to where she instinctively knew he was-- that was another thing that they would definitely need to talk about if they ever did get together; Bella might have appreciated the whole loner-stalker thing—but Leah most definitely did not. It’s called a cell phone dammit…use it.

“I know you are there, you might as well just come out like a normal person” she called out. She knew that Jacob had started to run towards where she was as soon as she had decided to shift and talk to the vampire. She probably had ten minutes before the menace was there and both idiots went into alpha male mode.

If that happened she had no problem kicking both of their respective asses.

Edward almost shuffled into the clearing looking rather abashed at having been called out, “Hello” he stated, and Leah had to grit her teeth to stop herself swooning like a pathetic school girl at the inflection he gave the word.

Seriously! She had to doubt Bella’s insistence that she was still holier then Mary (which she had apparently told Jacob—which if you asked Leah was weird), because Edward’s voice was most definitely a bed room voice.

‘Ooookay….concentrate Leah’ she reprimanded herself glad for the many years of practice she had at being a bitch. She used all of this experience to glare at the admittedly handsome vampire.

“What do you want?” she asked her voice guarded, doing her best not to sound like she really, really cared what he was doing; which she didn’t… not at all.

“…er…I-I was hoping to, um see you?” he stated though it sounded more like a question. In the back of her mind she was amused with the fact that he didn’t sound all that eloquent at the moment.

She was trying really, really hard not stare at him though her every instinct was telling her too…then again her every instinct was also telling her to establish her dominance, something she thought Edward probably wouldn’t appreciate…at least during their first meeting.

“Well here I am” she said sarcastically, raising one of her eyebrows in challenge.

Edward shifted again running a hand through his former perfectly styled hair, “…I-I think we have something’s to discuss” he stated falling back into the formal pattern of speech, that from what Leah had gleaned from Jacob’s thoughts was his normal speech pattern.

Leah sighed but nodded her agreement…might as well just dive right into it, “Look I don’t know how much you really know about our tribe…and…”she took a deep breath to steel herself before continuing, “…and how we chose our mates but…”

She didn’t get to finish her sentence as Edward broke out in a face splitting smile, “so you have felt it too then? That we are mates?” he stated the words rushed in his relief.

Leah saw no point in denying the fact so she nodded, “Yeah…I-I um imprinted on you”

Edward’s brow furrowed for a second while he processed the word, then smiled “it is your equivalent of a mate, yes?”

Leah nodded again, then a sudden thought struck her “Wait…Jacob told us that you can--are you reading my thoughts right now?” she demanded not sure how she felt about it.

Edward shook his head, “no my gift should not work properly on my mate…or my singer” he added the last softly. Leah tried to recall what the term meant, but shrugged when she couldn’t. It wasn’t that important though she did have a sneaking suspicion that it somehow related to Bella.

Speaking of which…

“Ok…so we established that we are-are mates” she swallowed again still not comfortable with what that term implied, “so what about your _girlfriend_?” she asked (and no she was not singing Avril Lavigne’s ridiculously annoying ‘girlfriend’ song in her head…at all). She needed a clear answer on this, she was not about to play second fiddle to a pathetic high school girl.

Edward’s brows furrowed and he looked uncomfortable again, “…um I- ah we’re still together” he admitted quietly.

Leah let out the harsh breath she had unconsciously been holding…of course they were. “Fine, I have to go” she stated before turning to retreat back into the forest where she could shift back.

“Wait!” Edward called out in panic, “where are you going?”

Leah turned slowly giving him her best ‘you are a complete moron and not worthy of my time or attention’ glare, “Where do you think? I have things to do”

Edward stood there looking confused and truth be told kind of like a kicked puppy, “b-but what about…what about us?” he asked.

Leah stared at him incredulously…was he serious? “There is no us. There will never be an us…at least until you are rid of your— _girlfriend_ ” her lips curled around the last word in disgust, “If you are serious about this, then you need to figure your shit out, until then we have nothing to talk about”

Edward looked like he wanted to protest but he didn’t…which was probably a smart choice.

Leah sighed again, not quite able to leave him without at least a bone (and no not that kind you perverts) “Give me your phone”

Edward shot her a confused look, “I know that you have it on you” she continued making an impatient gesture for him to hand it over.

He finally did so and she entered her own number in it, “there when you figure out what you want you can call….oh and tell Hayden that he needs to call me; you can give him the number” she stated tossing the phone back at him before moving away for real this time.

She didn’t need to look back to know that the vampire was still standing in the clearing staring down at the number she typed in.

As she ran in the direction that she knew that Jacob was coming from she couldn’t help but shake her head, men….certainly were the inferior gender at times.

Well at least the men that seemed to gravitate towards her anyway, but this time around she would be nobody’s fool…even if it meant ignoring her imprint.  

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Argus shuffled down one of the dark, rarely used Hogwart’s corridors, clutching the creased letter to his bony chest while a gleeful and all together frightening smile pulled at his lips.

Oh how he hated this place and these people.

He hated everyone, really. He hated the children—to noisy and messy; he hated his co-workers—to superior and condescending; hell, he even hated most of his family…then again it wasn’t like anyone could blame him on that account. They had after all cast him aside like yesterday’s garbage…all because he couldn’t make a light come out the end of a stupid stick. Even his ‘mutated’ relatives from America were irritating as hell. For the most part Argus avoided any form of contact with the entire lot of them.

Really, he had almost just thrown his cousin’s letter away when it arrived-- he barely even knew the Uley’s as in his good opinion, they had always been rather full of themselves and you could tell that they thought he was a little on the crazy—collecting plastic dolls—side of things, so he hadn’t made a real effort at it. But something stopped him from simply throwing the letter away.

And for that he was rather glad.

In his hand was a veritable treasure….a nugget of information that could very well prove to be invaluable. Why if the boy his cousin described was who he thought it was…well, let’s just say there were a whole lot of people who would be willing to pay a small fortune for that information.

He wouldn’t have to continue cleaning up nervous first year’s puke or being subjected to the older year’s dung bombs…he could---well he could retire!

Oh yes….today was a good day for one Argus Filch. Today he was going to sell the location of the missing savior to the highest bidder.

A good day indeed.


	15. And it all came crumbling down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys thanks for all of your review! love reading them. This chapter is a bit short, the third section I wanted to add didn't fit in it so I chose to move it to the next chapter...hopefully you still enjoy it ;) and as always let me know what you think!

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_A house divided cannot stand. -- Bible (Matthew 12:25)_

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He should have known better….really he should have listened to his gut feeling on this one, but foolishly the progress he and Hayden had made skewed his judgment and cautious nature. He was just in such a good mood having had more than one comfortable conversation with the green eyed boy.

It felt like for once, someone was actually listening to and considering his thoughts and opinions; not just brushing them off with the pacifying phrase of “Don’t worry…it will get easier”. How many times had Carslie or Esme told him that?—and despite their words the thirst, the way he felt like he was balancing on the tip of a knife, never eased up…it never went away.

He thought that he had made significant progress on his feelings in regards to Hayden possibly being his mate and moving on from Alice; every ‘homework’ session he had with the teen seemed to push it just a little more in the direction of true acceptance to the recent changes in his life. So much so, that when they got to the point where they only had one or two meetings left, Jasper knew that he needed to make up his mind and arrive at a decision.

And maybe this combination of things made him a little lax in his whole avoiding Carlisle and his ‘life changing—serious issue’ conversations. Really, up until this point it had always been Edward that Carlisle sought out to deliver such speeches. Unfortunately, it seemed as though their coven leader was determined to change that.

It happened just as Jasper was searching for a new package of pens before heading out to meet Hayden (they had decided to meet at the public library because Hayden didn’t feel like dealing with Bella who was basically camped out in the Cullen’s living room waiting for his brother to return from wherever he had gone off. Jasper kind of agreed with Hayden—he could really do without what was no doubt going to be one heck of a temper tantrum when Edward got back).

“Where are you off to Jasper?” Carlisle asked causing Jasper to jump in surprise. Really he needed to stop zoning out on thoughts of Hayden; it was a little embarrassing that Carlisle had managed to get the drop on him.

He stopped himself from rolling his eyes at Carlisle’s question, because the vampire obviously knew where he was going…it wasn’t as though any of them were forgetful; this was no doubt Carlisle’s way of starting a ‘conversation’ with him. And unfortunately the manners that Jasper had when he was mortal were still present now so it wasn’t as though he could just storm away in a snit (like Rosalie was apt to…sometimes he was really jealous of his sister’s ability to be a complete diva and get away with it).

“I am meeting with Hayden to work on our school paper” Jasper replied, keeping his tone neutral (and really the teacher was going to regret not having put a word limit on the assignment as he was going to get a full length novel on one David Thoreau).

Carlisle frowned at this information and gave Jasper what he likely thought was a stern/concerned look. “Are you sure that is wise? You seem to be spending a lot of time with that boy….more than you would on any other assignment”

Jasper couldn’t help but feel defensive at the blond vampire’s words…why should Carlisle even care who Jasper spent time with? It wasn’t like he had ever cared before—then again it wasn’t as though Jasper had ever spent time with anyone outside their immediate coven before, but still.

“Is that a problem?” he asked guardedly, he might as well get right to the crux of the matter as he was sure that Carslie would get their eventually anyway…at least this way they saved all the dancing around the issue.

“Well….I really don’t think that spending time with him is good for you Jasper…don’t forget who he is in town with or who he considers family” Carlisle stated gently as though his tone could ease the meaning behind his words. Which really was a bit rich coming from him, considering all the time he had spent with Aro and the others in the past.

“I really don’t see how that is any of your concern…we are meeting for a project, he has done nothing to me that could be considered harmful” Jasper replied stiffly wanting more than anything to cross his arms and stomp his feet (so he had watched one too many teen movies with Alice).

“It concerns me Jasper because you are part of this family…and that—that boy has done nothing but cause problems for this family since his arrival. It is because of him that your brother and Bella are having such problems…the threat hanging over their heads is causing your brother to pull away. That’s not fair to Bella who shouldn’t have to deal with this on her own…or Edward when he realizes how much his actions have hurt her. I don’t think spending time with the person responsible for this is a good thing….” Carlisle stated, his voice becoming slightly louder then he normally allowed; showing just how agitated this topic was making him.

Jasper stared back at Carlisle in shock….really? He was telling him who he could spend time with because it might offend _Bella_?! Bella who was human and not part of this family? Bella who Edward didn’t even seem to want to be with anymore? Seriously? He knew that Carslie had a skewed view on humanity and its importance but really…this was going too far. He tried to formulate what he wanted to say but it seemed as though Carslie wasn’t finished…

“…and then there is this new tension between you and Alice. She wouldn’t say what it’s about but I can’t help but feel as though Hayden has a part to play in it. I’m concerned for you Jasper….I don’t want him to undermine the effort you’ve made towards this new way of life”

Jasper just shook his head, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing and before he could even really think about it the words were coming out of his mouth, “the effort I have made towards _your_ way of life you mean! And you can’t seriously blame Edward’s and _precious_ Bella’s problems on anyone but them” he all but snarled.

“Jasper! See this is what I mean! You are already lashing out….something you would have never done before. And you don’t understand-- Edward has been alone for so long, is it really wrong that I am worried about the problems Hayden is causing between him and his mate? You have your mate already and Hayden’s presence is even causing problems between you two” Carlisle asked moving to place a hand on Jasper’s shoulder as though to center him.

“No. This behavior is not new nor is it caused by Hayden…this is me, the real me…not the fake, silent, obedient son you want me to be…and as for Edward and his mate, I understand more than you think….it just so happens that Hayden is my true mate. So he has just as much right to exist in this family as Bella does” Jasper snapped back shaking Carslie’s hand away.

“…”

“Are you sure?” Carlisle finally managed to ask, “I mean what about Alice….she is your mate? You could just be mistaken…”

It was truly the last straw…really this conversation shouldn’t have made him snap to the degree that he had but it was everything; the constant outsider status he had in his own family, Alice ending things, the strain of being around walking blood bags day in and day out all because _Carlisle_ felt that it would help them be normal…and finally his denial of Jasper suddenly knew was true. There was no denying it now that he had acknowledged it and spoken it out loud…Hayden was his mate.

“Yes I am sure” He stated grabbing the bag with the mostly finished assignment in it off the floor. When he saw that Carlisle was about to protest some more he interrupted him. He couldn’t handle anymore of his self righteous attitude or his meaningless words.

“I’m going to be late. I don’t know _when_ I’ll be back” he stated before walking swiftly out of the room.

They both heard the unspoken _if_.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

_“We need to talk”_

Severus watched as Victoria spun around so quickly that she almost tripped (and that was saying a lot considering vampires had a superior sense of balance).

“Wha…who are you?” she stumbled briefly before finding her previous confidence and demanding an answer, glaring heatedly at the tall, slim man—no vampire in front of her.

“Severus Snape” Severus replied extending his hand in mock politeness, “but really shouldn’t I be asking you that question? Considering that you are making an illegal newborn army and all”

The redhead tried not to gape at the vampire’s curt words; words which she was unhappy to admit were completely true. “What business is it of yours?” she asked suspiciously ignoring the question about her name.

“Well…as it happens that I am a part of the Volturi…I would say that it is very much my business” Severus replied, “And you still haven’t told me who you are” he added the last bit coldly. Though he couldn’t help but feel intrigued by the beautiful redhead in front of him, her hair was a wild red….not the same color as Lily’s burnt red, but attractive none the less. He quickly stopped that line of thinking, he was suppose to be finding out what was going on in Seattle, not admiring the vampire who was no doubt the instigator.

“Victoria” she replied, this time her tone far more cautious, “and my apologies…I did not realize”

Severus chose not to acknowledge her words but decided to get the answers he was looking for, “and why are you blatantly breaking our laws? I am assuming the numerous missing people reports and the drained bodies that have been showing up are your doing?”

Victoria shifted looking nervous, “Well….more like the newborns doing...” she trailed off. This was definitely not good…she wanted revenge on the stupid swan girl but perhaps she should have thought things through a little more…she definitely did not want the make enemies of the Volturi.

“But you created the newborns, therefore they are your responsibility…and again why?” Severus cut off her inner monologue the glare on his face was enough to make the most cheerful care bear implode.

“I-I wanted revenge” she stated, deciding the only way that she was going to get out of this alive was to come clean and pray the vampire across from her was feeling merciful. She might be able to fight her way out of this, but all that would do was bring more heat down on her…no, the best she could do was admit to her mistakes and hope for mercy.

“Revenge?” Severus asked sounding skeptical.

“Yes…the Cullen’s killed my companion, James because of the disgusting human girl they keep as a pet” Victoria spat the whole situation coming to the front and making her angry once more.

“Is that so?” Severus asked, “Explain”

“Myself, James and another vampire came across them a couple of years ago….we simply were curious about such a large coven in the area and thought to introduce ourselves. Bella Swan, the human girl was with them… James is—no, was a renowned tracker and through a brief skirmish between him and Edward Cullen, he became interested in the girl. Long story short he was about to drain her and they killed him for it” She stated, clenching her fists as she did so “it was not their place….it should have been brought before the Volturi and punishment given…they killed one of us over a human!”

Severus hummed to himself but did not answer for a period of time. While her companion (and the word made him want to re-kill this James) was in no way innocent of what went down, what she said was true….the Cullen’s had no right in playing executioner especially for the perceived crime. That and Severus was finding that this Swan girl was far more trouble than she was worth.

“I see” he said arriving at a decision before looking back up at Victoria, allowing a vicious smile to emerge, “and just what are you planning to do?”

Victoria must have seen it in his eyes because she gave him a cruel smile in return.


	16. Lines Drawn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So because I gave you such a short chapter in my last post I have decided to give you another earlier then I had planned...hopefully you like it! either way let me know what you think ;)

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_He who rides the middle of the road gets hit from both ends.” ―[Loni Bergqvist](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8342302.Loni_Bergqvist)_

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Hayden didn’t know what to think now that he knew the truth. In all honesty he would have preferred to ignore the entire situation completely but something was telling him that it really wouldn’t be an option for very long. If only he had been able to ignore his blasted curiosity and really you would have thought that by now, he would be able to do so.

While it was true that he was rather used to Severus and the others keeping things from him, it didn’t mean that he liked when it happened….and unfortunately the fact that he knew it was happening once again had awoken his nosey side.

And really who could blame him? He had been rather good all things considering…he knew that the kings had other reasons for sending him to Forks (outside of his pleading) but in his desperation to be allowed to experience something new, he had allowed for that information to go undiscovered.

Likewise he knew that Aro and the others had given ‘extra’ instructions to the twins but once again he was an angel (hey! He was!) and didn’t pester either of them to tell him (ok, so he didn’t pester Alec to tell him, as getting something out of Jane that she didn’t want to share had the same probability as the West Baptist assholes deciding that homosexuals were actually really nice people who deserved respect and rights like everyone else…hmmm that reminds him he still needed to have Jane pay a ‘visit’ to said assholes). But the last straw was the discovery that Severus—his mentor and man (vampire) he trusted like no other was hiding something from him.

At first all of the ‘trips’ Severus took to Seattle hadn’t really meant much to him…he figured that his guardian was simply getting bored of Forks (and really who could blame him? It was like stepping foot into a bloody Laura Ingalls novel sometimes) and wanted to escape. Because really, going ‘hunting’ every day in the last week and a half was a tad overkill even for one seeking excitement.

So Hayden had been forced to pay a little closer attention to his guardian’s absences because although Severus had a masterful poker face (really he could have made a killing in Vegas) Hayden was the one person who could normally see behind his scowls and snappy retorts (of course Severus was probably not aware that Hayden could read him so well considering Hayden never acted on the information he gleamed while doing so—again angel).

Basically what he was trying to say was that something was up with Severus and this led him to poking his nose into things he had wished he had left alone. He had debated for a while whether to let things lie or to try and find out on his own exactly what it was that Severus was hiding.

In the end he discarded both options because a) he was never good and letting things lie, especially if they held any degree of mystery and b) he was not stupid enough to think that he could successfully spy on the vampire in question without getting caught (come on…not only did he have superior senses, reflexes and a more then healthy amount of paranoia, but the man had spent most of his mortal life spying as well!).

So he decided his best chance at getting an answer to just what Severus was hiding was to confront the man…yeah the plan sounded much slicker in his head. As it turned out it really wasn’t all that sly…

_Flashback (yesterday)_

_Hayden decided to plant himself on the front step to wait for Severus’s return…the vampire had left for Seattle over four hours ago so really he should be getting back sooner rather than later (and yes he was aware of how ironic it was that he was waiting for his guardian to come home and not the other way around). Thankfully he was actually correct about Severus’s timing and did not have to resign himself to a numb ass and several boring hours of waiting._

_“How was Seattle?” He asked as Severus got out of the car, causing the vampire to look up surprised to see someone sitting—waiting for him in front of the house. It took only a second before he was able to school his momentary surprise into the patented sneer._

_“What are you doing sitting out here in the cold Hayden? If you so much as catch a cold you know that Caius will have my head” the dour man demanded moving towards the front of the house only to pause and look down at the still sitting teen._

_“I’m not made of glass...I think I can handle sitting outside without the world coming to an end” Hayden muttered looking very much like his physical sixteen year old age rather than his actually age at the moment._

_“hmph” was all he got in response forcing him to bite back his temper because he knew that was what Severus was after…something to distract him from asking to many questions. “Now you didn’t answer my question, why are you sitting on the doorstep like yesterday’s milk?”_

_“Waiting for you…what else?” Hayden replied covertly studying the vampire in front of him. Though he wasn’t entirely sure as to why; it wasn’t like there would be a neon sign on the man’s forehead flashing an itinerary of where Severus had been in the last few hours._

_Severus shot him a suspicious look but gestured for the green eyed hybrid to get up and follow him inside, “and why where you waiting for me?” the man asked again this time far more pointed in his question._

_Hayden sighed and shifted nervously under the man’s onyx glare—well, might as well go for gold and all that….”I want to know what you are hiding” he blurted out before his mind caught up with his mouth. Sure, he had been planning on confronting the man over his whereabouts, but perhaps a more subtle approach would have been better. If there was one thing about his mentor that he knew, it was that he appreciated subtly and despised brash behavior. Though the man had never explained why, Hayden was pretty sure it had something to do with when Severus was still in school._

_“Please?” he added almost apologetically_

_“I told you already… I was hunting” Severus replied, and to most it would seem as though he was bored with the conversation given his posture and tone, but Hayden saw the subtle twitch of his left eye and knew that the man was—if not lying, than not telling the entire truth._

_“Sev” Hayden said sending his best kicked puppy expression (not that he knew what a kicked puppy looked like…he might live with the Volturi but he wasn’t a heartless bastard—because really who kicks a puppy?)_

_Severus studied him for a long moment, “Alright…sit down I have a lot to tell you”_

_End flashback_

Yeah, he should have minded his own business because if he had he wouldn’t be currently caught in-between his family…and his mate. Ok, so maybe he was being a touch dramatic as he hadn’t actually approached Jasper about the situation yet and so he didn’t exactly know that he was caught between the two sides… but he could assume.

Yes, he knew that Jasper had recently had a major fight with Carslie (and yes maybe he had drank a celebratory glass or two when he heard) but they were still the blond’s family. He wished that this situation had come to head in another couple of weeks…he had no doubt that given the time he could have convinced Jasper to forsake them for good and return to his roots (aka: acting like an real vampire), but he was afraid that it was too soon to push the blond as hard as this situation was going to require him to push.

Because Severus has told him more information then he really wanted to know at the moment. Letting him know that the Cullen’s had committed even more crimes then simply informing a human about them. Noo, they went for broke when it came to breaking Volturi law. They decided to kill another vampire over the same cancerous growth (and he had tried to come up with something nastier to compare her too but well, his mind was just not cooperating at the moment) that had started all of this trouble. He reluctantly told him that the murdered vampire’s (because really there was no other description for said dead being) companion was now demanding revenge.

Oh…and just to add a little bit more drama to the whole thing turns out Severus actually liked said companion (whose name was apparently Victoria)! And while this might not be earth shattering news to most…this was Severus! The most sour, crabby vampire to ever grace Italy’s fine shores. Sure there were a few that Severus allowed past his prickly veneer (Hayden….Hayden and oh right, Hayden) but most he simply tolerated. He was respectful to the Volturi guard and leaders because he was clever enough to know not to antagonize those more powerful than him, but he didn’t actually ‘like’ them.

So the fact that he actually admitted to liking her (and okay so he hadn’t said he liked her but he had given her four compliments…which was the equivalent in Severus language) was big. And since her goals and the Volturi’s basically lined up…well, it was safe to say the Cullen’s were on thin ice. Of course the blame would be placed on the Cullen leaders… (Aro had always found leniency on those with talents) so if Jasper denounced his allegiance with the coven he would be fine.

But if the coven banded together to protect the cow eyed trouble mongerer well then….they would be destroyed, gifts or not. Hayden really, really hoped that his mate would be smart enough to not go against the Volturi….because if Jasper sided with the Cullen’s-- even if Hayden decided to stand with him there would be no chance in survival. The Volturi did not take traitors lightly—even if he was perhaps the most favored member in existence.

When he had asked Severus about Victoria’s own crimes (aka: creating a new born army etc) he had told Hayden that he had already discussed it with the leaders and they had decided because she was not making them to attack them…that they would let it slide. Of course most of the newborns had been sent to Volterra to either be a) killed, b) trained or c) sent off to live with one of the Volturi’s alleging covens…and really it made sense, newborns would be essentially useless against older, better trained vampires and there were more than enough of those in the area to deal with the Cullen’s if it came down to a fight (Severus, Demetri, the twins, Victoria, and Riley...as well as a newborn called Bree as she had demonstrated better than normal self control, and this wasn’t even accounting for Hayden).

But regardless of the Cullen’s possibly doing the smart thing for once and handing over Bella (because we all know the likelihood of that happening), there would be conflict of some sort. And he knew he needed to talk to Jasper about it…because there was no way that he would not be involved in said conflict in some manner.

He only prayed that Jasper did the smart thing and didn’t leave his mate for a family who barely accepted him…

Hhhhhhhhhh

Jasper found himself waiting for Hayden to arrive with a strange mix of anticipation and trepidation….hey, just because he was an empath didn’t mean that his own emotions necessarily made sense.

He could honestly say they he considered Hayden a friend now; which was saying something considering Jasper really didn’t have friends (well outside of Peter and Charlotte and considering how often he saw them since he had joined the Cullens, they were estranged friends at best).

No, after his ‘disagreement’ with Carslie, he had not sought out any of his siblings…no, he had sought out Hayden. And while it would have been the perfect time for the green eyed boy to push things and maybe even done the ‘I told you so dance’, the teen hadn’t. He had simply listened to Jasper vent (and was that a shocker or what? considering Jasper wasn’t one for expressing his anger…well not unless you count ripping apart people/vampires as expressing and that had been over fifty years ago) not giving his own opinion but simply asking the right questions.

Questions that helped Jasper organize why and exactly what about Carslie’s lecture had set him off….and that had allowed him to be able to at least view things in a rational manner. He had arrived at the conclusion that while he was thankful to Carlisle and the others (at least to some degree) for the past fifty or so years (because even if he had always felt like an outsider of sorts they still did bring him into their home and family), that it wasn’t enough anymore.

He did not wish them ill but he was tired of struggling and changing everything about himself in an effort to please them. He was not sure what this meant for the future just that it meant something. And he knew that Hayden had played a large part in helping Jasper reach this epiphany. Because truth of the matter was even if Hayden made it clear that he did not approve of Jasper’s current lifestyle he had never tried to hide it between morals or false promises.

He had never told Jasper that he would accept him unconditionally only to go and put conditions on it. And well what Hayden wanted him to be, he couldn’t help but feel that it was the true him…not the pretend him that he had been since he met Alice.

Because of this, he had been more open, more relaxed when spending time with Hayden and it showed…not only in his own attitude towards the teen but in Hayden’s attitude towards Jasper. The black haired hybrid was correspondingly more open and warm when he was around Jasper.

That was the reason he had started to consider Hayden a friend and was anticipating his arrival…the trepidation part came from the tone of Hayden’s voice over the phone requesting the meeting. There was something in it that was leaving him feeling on edge.

He heard a sharp crack from behind him only to turn around and find Hayden standing there. That was another thing; the teen had been more lax lately about hiding his ‘differences’, while Jasper still wasn’t sure what exactly made the teen so different he could safely say that Hayden could do a whole hell of a lot that he shouldn’t be able to if he were merely a gifted human.

“Hey” Hayden greeted smiling at the blond. And it was a true smile, not the mocking, acerbic one that he normally used in public.

“Hello” Jasper returned the greeting sending the teen a curious glance as to why Hayden had asked to meet him on the outskirts of the forest of all places.

“Walk with me?” Hayden asked tilting his head in the direction of the thick trees. Jasper nodded his agreement, easily lengthening his strides to catch up to the teen who was now moving at a brisk pace through the darkening forest.

“So you are probably wondering why I asked you to meet me out here of all places” Hayden stated after a few minutes of silence.

Jasper nodded again knowing that the teen caught the movement in his periphery.

“I needed to talk to you where there would be no chance of your family….or my family overhearing what I need to say” Hayden answered the question he himself had raised.

Jasper stopped short, whatever the teen wanted to tell him had to be serious if he was hiding it from his own coven (the Cullen’s were another matter entirely, as he was pretty sure that Hayden would hide information from them simply to irritate them or keep them guessing).

“I know neither of us has brought it up but I am sure by now you are aware that you are my mate” Hayden stated turning to face the now unmoving Jasper.

“Yes” Jasper replied though it came out far more croaky then he would have liked.

“Good….that makes what I am going to tell you easier. You are obviously aware that we did not come here as an idle threat…” Hayden continued waiting just long enough to see Jasper nod again, “…what you may not be aware of, is the fact that certain _information_ about your coven and their past actions have just recently come to light”

If Jasper had blood running through his veins he was sure that he would have paled at Hayden’s words, he could very well guess what information Hayden was referring to….really it could only be the Jame’s debacle. Something that he had disagreed with at the time and still did….unfortunately, he had held his tongue as it wasn’t his place but the coven leader’s to make that call. Hell, he had even tried to sooth the stupid girl at the time….

Hayden must have seen the recognition in his eyes because he continued, “Yes, the fact that your coven killed a vampire to protect a human…something that your dear brother or ex forgot to mention when they were brought before the council….as you likely know-- given your own battle experience --the kings will not let this lie…especially since the same human has already been the cause of law breaking…there will be reparations made Jasper…”

Jasper swallowed dryly, “So, what does this mean?” he asked although he was pretty sure he already knew what it meant. But hell, might as well get it clarified.

“Carlisle has made his bed and will have to lay in it. If he is smart and hands Bella over there might be mercy for him and Esme…how the rest of your coven reacts will influence how they are dealt with. I am pretty certain that should you or any of your siblings denounce your allegiance with Carlisle or protecting Bella that you will be given a full pardon, especially you considering that you are my mate…three of you Aro is interested in further negotiating with….” Hayden paused at the last. Jasper wasn’t stupid he knew that for Edward, Alice and likely himself Aro would be interested in offering them a place in the Italian guard.

“…but if any of you choose to fight against us, you are signing your own death warrant…” Hayden finished, the last said quietly “I will have no choice Jasper if you choose to fight…we will likely be facing each other on the so called battle field”

Jasper nodded calmly although he was far from calm. He knew that he had basically already chosen to sever ties with his family but….to completely abandon them to what would likely be their deaths? He wasn’t stupid the rest of his ‘siblings’ were still loyal enough to Carlisle that they would likely abide by whatever he chose to do…and he knew that the coven leader would not hand Bella over as a sacrifice.

Jasper refused to sacrifice his own life to protect her…because that was what they would be doing if they fought the Volturi…there was no way they could win…not that he actually wanted them to win. And then there was the fact that Hayden was on firmly on the Volturi’s side…so really it was pretty obvious to him what side he should choose.

But still….he did care about his so called family…at least to some degree. Rosalie and Emmet had nothing to do with this mess, and he was pretty sure that Edward had found something else to occupy his time that was most decidedly not Bella. And then there was Alice…he had to believe that his ex-wife would be smart enough not to go up against the Volturi…even if her visions were acting up lately. It didn’t take being a seerer to know that it was a suicide mission.

“You don’t have to give me an answer yet” Hayden interrupted his internal debate, “think it over for a few days…I believe the rest of your family will be told of this ultimatum before the end of the week”

Jasper nodded feeling a small amount of relief that he wouldn’t have to give an answer just yet, “can I tell any of the others?” he asked. If he had time he would try to convince at least Rose and Em to make the sane decision.

Hayden paused for a moment before slowly nodding, “Yes…use your discretion though…and not Carslie or Esme that will be Demetri’s or Severus’s job”

Jasper nodded, “Ok…I will do as you ask, I will think it over and talk to you…tomorrow?” he suggested the last simply because while he was still hesitant, he was pretty sure he knew what his answer was going to be.

“Perfect” Hayden replied, “Until tomorrow” he stated before turning away and walking further into the forest.

Jasper watched him move away for a moment before he turned and headed in the opposite direction his mind churning with thoughts.

Had he not been so preoccupied with his inner dialogue he might have noted that instead of just one pop (which he had begun to associate with Hayden coming or going) several dozen sounded.

If he hadn’t been so preoccupied he might have heard the sound of muttered Latin being said or the sound of a loud crash caused by the fall of an unconscious body coming from the direction that Hayden had just been going.


	17. Evil Villains 101

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow you guys are awesome! I am still blown away by the response to this story ;) so to assuage your concern (because ending the last chapter where I did was cruel) I am posting the next one! Tell me what you think!

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_We’re happier when the assholes are villains.” ―[Christopher Bram](http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19890.Christopher_Bram), [Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America](http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/16451742)_

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It took him a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the gloomy, darkness of the small room he was currently sitting in when he first opened his eyes. Well one thing was for sure, and that was the fact that he was most definitely not still in Forks…or back in Volterra for that matter (of course the second was a possibility if he had severely pissed off the brothers; but as he had been his usual angelic self—well, to those that mattered -- he was pretty sure that wasn’t the case).

He was careful not to move as he allowed his eyes to take in the tiny room—no, cell that he was in. It wouldn’t do to let whoever had grabbed him know that he was awake quite yet. And yes, he knew that he had been grabbed and brought here forcefully…at least that was the assumption that he was currently working off of.

The last thing he recalled before everything went black was the fact that he had told Jasper to take his time and consider both of his options before choosing one—although he really hoped that his mate would chose the one that didn’t involve Hayden having to kill his own mate; he knew that it had to be Jasper’s decision and Jasper’s decision alone. So he had bid the blond fair well while heading deeper into the forest.

Of course years of living with the Volturi and being on top of the proverbial food chain (or not so proverbial in most of his covens’ cases) had made him admittedly a bit cocky and perhaps a tad overconfident. Hence the reason he had decided to go for a walk alone before apparating back to the house. He had wanted to clear his head after his meeting with Jasper, gain a bit of levity before talking with Severus and the others.

While he hadn’t exactly done anything wrong by telling Jasper what he had…he still took liberties with the information he had gained from Severus. After all his mentor hadn’t exactly given him the green light (and wasn’t’ that the weirdest human expression ever? Why would they care what color of light they were given?) to share the plans for the Cullen’s with a member of said family. But hey…it wasn’t as thought Jasper hadn’t been already questioning his allegiance to the family or anything; and the fact that he was Hayden’s mate surely was a point in the blond vampires favor. Hayden figured that it was his right to tell the blond what he did.

But still it would be better to enter the house in the correct frame of mind.

Unfortunately, he hadn’t walked all that far before he was literally ambushed by more than two dozen wand waving maniacs (from what Severus had told him he understood that wizards were traditional but come on—who thought it was a smart idea to wear dresses into to battle?).

He really hadn’t even had a chance to defend himself properly (although in the few seconds between him being aware that he was being attacked and falling unconscious thanks to about twenty stunners hitting him, he was pretty sure that he had severely damaged at least six of his attackers—the fact that he was in a cell was starting to make more and more sense now that he had time to think about it….)

So okay….a brief summary of what he knew:

a)      he had been stupid to wander off into a forest alone even if he did have a large arsenal of defenses at his disposal

b)      He had been ambushed and attacked by, what he was pretty sure were wizards (this was definitely not a making him want to reconnect with his lost brethren)

c)       He was now in some shady ass, mold filled cell—located heaven’s knows where, with a tight silver band that hadn’t been there before, wrapped around his left forearm….not necessarily a good thing.

d)      He was pissed as hell.

None of this information was necessarily helpful in his current situation. He closed his eyes and concentrated on Forks as hard as he could. Although he was not surprised to find that he had not moved a cm when he opened his eyes again, he was a little disappointed. Okay, so he could add that the wizards had done something to him that was currently stopping his ability to apparate…he reckoned it had something to do with the silver band.

He clawed at the constricting metal band (no longer really caring if they knew he was awake or not) only to find that despite his superior strength the only thing that he was accomplishing with the act was damaging the skin around said band. He let out a low growl of frustration.

If he ever got out of this situation the kings were never going to leave him alone again…hell, he would probably have a chaperon for when he took a bloody bath…then again if that chaperon was a certain blond vampire that might not be so bad...OK! so not the time to be thinking about sexing up his mate. First priority: escape, second priority: find Jasper…

His eyes shot up when he heard someone enter the room (although unfortunately they stayed on the other side of the bars). He took in the tall elegantly robed man that approached him. While the robes were a tad ostentatious and vibrant for his taste, they suited the dark skinned man…giving him a regal air rather than just looking ridiculous (which they would have on anyone else who tried to wear them).

While them man exuded a sense of calm, Hayden was not so easily tricked (well maybe he might have been more open to trusting the man, if he were not currently shackled and locked up). He decided that he would not be the first to break the silence.

He knew all too well how others used silence as a weapon and he’d be damned first (which considering he lived with a bunch of vampires; he probably already was) before he broke and initiated conversation.

“Mr. Potter” the man finally spoke when he realized that Hayden was simply going to sit there petulantly and glare at him, “I apologize for how your rescue was handled”

Hayden stared back at him in disbelief, “rescue?!” he asked his voice showing just how much he viewed his kidnapping in this man’s terms.

“Yes…you have been with those—those monsters for far too long, it is time that you return to were you belong” the man explained patiently as though finding the right words would make Hayden understand.

Hayden could not believe what he was hearing…seriously this man was delusional, to come and stun and then shackle and jail someone—taking them away from the only family they had ever known and call it a good thing? A rescue? He could suddenly understand the disdainful tone Severus took anytime he spoke of the British wizarding world. It was like they were smoking something…and not in a good way.

“You call showing up uninvited or announced, knocking me unconscious, bringing me to hell knows where and continuing to keep me locked up a rescue?!? I think that you may want to revisit the meaning of that term _sir_ ” Hayden stated the address as sarcastically as he could.

The wizard shifted uncomfortably looking a little flustered at being spoken to in such a manner, “…well…yes; we couldn’t let you know we were going to rescue you without tipping off your captors you see…” he started.

Hayden didn’t give him the chance to finish his rather lame excuse before cutting him off, “and what if they were not my captors? What if I was there under my own free will?…then how would that color your— _rescue_?”

“Er…I understand how you would see it that way, it is completely understandable, you have been living with them for far too long to comprehend what they have done to you….don’t worry we are going to make sure that you are taken care of…” the man stated this time looking at Hayden his expression full of pity.

Hayden felt a small tendril of dread curl in his stomach, “…and just how are you going to take care of me?” he asked.

The man didn’t get a chance to answer as a rather disheveled, rumpled redheaded man entered the room before he could answer, “Kingsley….the mind healer can be here sometime tomorrow—she currently dealing with a rather large emergency—seems someone thought it would be funny to release ethogenic powder within the floo-network. Apparently it’s a new strain and it got passed several of the barriers….she and the others are rather inundated with patients seeing…seeing a purple singing dinosaur. It’s apparently a rather traumatic sight”

If Hayden wasn’t so worried about having a ‘mind healer’ (because really when did being seen by someone who was overly interested in one’s mind ever result in good things?) he would likely have found the fact that a large portion of theses unhinged wand wielders were being visited by visions of Barney rather amusing. Though in their defense the giant singing pedo dinosaur was rather disturbing….

The man, who was apparently named Kingsley, sighed rubbing his temple wearily, “Alright Arthur I suppose there is nothing we can do at the moment…”

The redheaded man—Arthur, shot an wary glance at Hayden before turning back to Kinglsey “…what’s wrong with him? I thought they said he would be happy to come back?” he whispered likely thinking that Hayden couldn’t hear him, even if his whisper was akin to a fog horn going off---idiot.

And just who were _they_? Hayden kept his expression carefully school in indifferent…it appeared the wizards were not aware of his vampiric abilities—likely they had chalked up the amount of damage he had done in the grab and go to his magic. Well let them—better for him, extra sensitive hearing would likely come in handy (even if he didn’t need it with the redhead).

“Not here Arthur—we talk about this more later, though I will say that it seems that the vampires did something to his mind. I am confidant after Ms. Chang looks at him everything will be fine” Kinglsey replied in his own hushed tone.

“Yes, she is rather good at what she does…then again after the tragic loss of the boy she loved at such a young age…it’s not surprising she would succeed in her chosen field” Arthur apparently decided to add the completely irrelevant piece of information into their conversation while nodding in agreement to Kingsley’s previous statement.

Hayden watched as both men glanced back over at him before leaving the room…well, it appeared that at the moment all he could do was wait.

Well, wait and maybe dig his way out of this hell hole—he was pretty sure that’s what most prisoners did in the movies….

Now if only he had a spoon.

_Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh_

Leah took a deep breath trying to remember what the spandex clad woman had said in the .99¢ instructional yoga video…something about finding your center. Almost immediately she disregarded the advice, because really who wears arm sweat bands? Ok…so she would just have to rely on her own patience to get through the upcoming ‘conversation’ she was going to have with Sam.

Honestly, she wasn’t even sure why she had agreed to listen to Jacob and go talk to the idiot.

Oh, she knew that Jacob had said something about keeping your damn enemies close (which she thought was complete bullshit, as she always thought enemies were much better kept far, far away---like Siberia type distance), but she wasn’t sure why she had to be the one to go and talk to him. Of course it probably had something to do with Sam being like the biggest chauvinist known to man and he would underestimate her intelligence simply because she happened to be missing a center appendage between her legs.

The moron would be more likely to toss out valuable information…like what the elders thought about the whole vampire invasion thing. Of course Sam would no doubt lie though his irritating chops but Leah could read him well enough to still glean the truth behind his words.

When she knocked on the door to the Uley residence, she was unsurprised that it was answered by her cousin. They had a weird relationship-- especially now, considering that Emily had essentially come down and married her fiancé…the first year after the wedding-that-didn’t-exist had been tense between them, to the point where Leah had thought she would likely upend Emily’s giant lemonade pitcher (because of course her cousin had to be bleeping Martha Stuart in the kitchen and have a designated Lemonade pitcher) over her cousin’s head.

Their relationship had gotten better after Emily’s ‘accident’ because even Leah wasn’t bitchy enough to carry a grudge after her cousin got disfigured by her husband and Leah’s ex-fiancé, but it was still a tad uncomfortable (kinda like how the book worm greets the former cheerleader at their ten year reunion—cordial but barely).

“Leah! I didn’t expect you….” Emily states the obvious, while looking thoroughly surprised at the dark haired girl’s appearance on her doorstep. Then again Leah couldn’t exactly blame her; she didn’t make it a habit of visiting her ex and his wife.

“Hi, yeah I probably should of called or some shit like that….” She admitted shifting uncomfortably at the way Emily’s mouth tightened at her language—her cousin had always been a stickler for that sort of thing (aka: prude—or at least that’s how Leah saw it). “Um…is Sam around? I need to speak with him…” she added when the silence was stretching past uncomfortable to torturous.

Emily brightened immediately, likely glad that they now had a topic at least to discuss—“Yes he is…he’s currently _busy_ …” Leah raised an eyebrow at Emily’s tone, it wasn’t often that something pissed her cousin off enough for her to get snarky...” but if you want to wait I’m sure he will be finished talking to Bella shortly” Emily finished.

Well, well…wasn’t that curious…what did Bella Swan have to discuss with Sam?

Seeing that Emily nodded towards a slightly ajar door (that Leah could only assume was an office) Leah moved in that direction. A quick covert look over her shoulder told her that Emily had already moved back into the kitchen to finish whatever masterpiece she was likely working on (again Leah snorted to herself-- maybe it was better that Sam had ended up marrying Emily, because she sure as hell wouldn’t be baking muffins for the rest of those ill mannered mutts).

In the next minute she decided that Sam and Bella made the worst villains ever…or perhaps just the stupidest villains given how loudly they were talking. Seriously, if she were going to talk about some nefarious thing, she would make sure she at least closed the damn door to stop people (aka: her) from eavesdropping—common sense people!

“…I thought you said you would take care of it!”

The high winy tone that could only belong to Bella Swan could be heard from where Leah was now crouching listening to the conversation taking place behind the door.

“I did” Sam stated, his own irritation evident from the tone of his reply.

“…what do you mean you did? How? Because I waited for four hours for Edward to come home the other night and he didn’t! and Jasper had some huge argument with Carslie and I KNOW it was about that green eyed bastard! You need to work faster because he’s winning! Can’t you see that! He’s corrupting them while we sit here and do nothing!”

And okay…was it just her, or did Bella sound a little unhinged during that speech? Seriously had the girl missed a dose of medication or something? She had never liked Bella before but now she was just….well, sounding straight out crazy.

“I said that it’s already taken care of” Sam snapped back at a now rather hysterical Bella.

“WHAT do you MEAN? Explain!” Bella demanded her voice now ringing clear as a bell throughout not only the room they were in but the entire house.

Seriously sucky criminals.

“I wrote my cousin and he said that he would take care of it. And he did. I received another letter from one of their--their higher ups or whatever…some Kingsley asking for more details and assuring me that they would send people to take Hayden off our hands…so, see? nothing to worry about. I said I’d deal with it and I did” Sam stated sounded disgustingly proud.

Leah muffled the gasp that wanted to escape (not that they would have heard it even if it had, what with the way they were bellowing) and backed slowly away from the door. Oh shit! This was not good. Sam might be a completely powerless and usualness idiot, but the people he was writing to? Who knows what kinda trouble they could cause…

She needed to tell someone, and tell them fast. She all but sprinted from the house not bothering to explain her fast departure to Emily (hopefully she was still lost amongst her cupcakes and forgot to mention the little fact that Leah stopped by to talk to Sam…either way Leah didn’t really care at the moment) before shifting into wolf form and sending an SOS to Jacob via their mental link.

As she ran, she didn’t run towards where Jacob was waiting, but rather to where she knew the evil (and slightly psychotic) twins were at. Now was the time to see just how much they meant the offer they had been discussing with her recently….

Hopefully she was just being paranoid and this information would simply go into planning prevention against a third parties attack. She didn’t let herself think about the other possibility. While she might not be close to Hayden per say…staying on the good side of him and the rest of his group was essential for her and Jacob’s own well being.

As she raced towards the Volturi home she only hoped she wasn’t too late.


	18. Saving Hayden

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope that this chapter is too your liking, either way let me know!

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_“It's only in fairy tales that princesses can afford to wait for the handsome prince to save them. In real life, they have to bust out of their own coffins and do the saving themselves.” ―_ [ _Meg Cabot_ ](http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/11654.Meg_Cabot) _,_ [ _Abandon_ ](http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/11351526)

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Jane sneered at the little pixie in front of her…and okay so Alice Cullen wasn’t actually a pixie (though according to Severus they did actually exist), but the rest of their little hodgepodge recruit team had taken to using the name when referring to the hyper little seer and well….it stuck. She was happy to place the entire blame on Hayden of course—he had the most annoying habit of getting her to do and think things that were entirely out of character for her.

She paused momentarily at that thought—to think of it, she hadn’t seen Hayden since he disappeared early this morning to ‘sneak’ out and meet up with his irritating little mate (really! she wanted to smack the green eyed hybrid over the head…to think he could pull a fast one over on the four of them…honestly..). She smirked slightly to herself at this, maybe her adopted brother (because besides Alec there was no one else that she saw as true family) had moved passed the humming and hawing stage directly into the groping and pawing stage? If so well, good on him; maybe it would help alleviate some of the loneliness she caught in his eyes every once in a while. And god, her she was getting all lovey dovey….she was obviously long overdue for a massacre of choir children somewhere (Christmas wasn’t that far off; perhaps she would go find some early Christmas pageant— because really who actually enjoyed those things? Frosty the Snowman, could freaking shove it).

But back to the present situation….yeah, she should probably be paying more attention to what her brother was trying to convince the Ritalin deprived vampire.

“While your offer is enticing….I-I just have a gut feeling that it is too soon for me to accept” Alice said looking torn and uncomfortable at her brother’s rather convincing (if she did say so herself) argument.

Alec huffed in irritation looking very much how Jane was currently feeling. Though in all fairness these feelings were completely valid…they _had_ been playing this game with Alice for over a month now and they had made little if any progress. They were rather close to just saying screw it and walking away (ok, so they wouldn’t actually walk away leaving Alice in one piece if it did come to down to them leaving. No Aro’s orders had been fairly clear—convince the seer to join the guard and if all attempts failed… weeelll….yeah probably wouldn’t end so good for said seer.

However, Jane hated to fail…and ending up sans-seer on their return, counted in Jane’s eyes (and likely in the kings eyes) as a failure. So, here they were, sitting down to yet ANOTHER meeting where neither parties changed what was said.

Jane leveled Alice with her infamous ice glare and did a small victory dance in her head when she saw Alice flinch. “A little birdie told me that your visions weren’t working as of late….so exactly how do you know it is not the time to say yes?” she asked her tone deceptively sweet and childish. That was another thing—would Aro and the others even want the stupid little thing if her vision was broken?—oh right…that was Hayden’s fault, thus he could probably reverse it….sometimes it was easy to forget the scope of the teens powers.

Alice sent her a scowl back at the mention of her broken gift (and really it reminded her of a soaked kitten trying to be ferocious—the other vampire was so hopelessly out of her league in the art of intimidation that it was really rather pathetic). Jane saw Alec’s eyes glint in amusement; it was the one small compensation they got having to deal with these stalemated negotiations; they both knew how sensitive Alice was over her ‘blindness’ so to see her squirm even a little bit made them both want to smile.

“Just because I cannot get a clear picture does not mean I can’t trust my gut feelings” Alice ground out, sniffing primly.

Jane was just about to make another snide comment ( _what_?! it wasn’t as though Alice was going to change her mind during this meeting anyway…she might as well get a little fun out of the wasted day) when the front door burst open.

All three vampires spun at an inhuman speed, staring at the flustered, disheveled looking werewolf that had not only just barged in uninvited to a vampire residence but did so without even so much as a knock to announce her presence.

Jane let out a low snarl—she recognized the girl as none other than Leah Clearwater; the werewolf that had warned them of the current’s alphas hatred towards them (and most particularly Hayden). Aro had given her and Alec the go ahead to work with Leah to convince the current beta, Jacob Black to over throw the alpha. Of course they would only offer a small amount of help; it was essentially up to the young beta to win that battle, if he was going to prove himself worthy of the alpha title after all. Aro was rather keen on making an alliance with the pack (though Jane was pretty sure he was more interested in acquiring future guard dogs: not only because he had always been a bit of a pretentious prick at times but also because he enjoyed ruffling Caius’s feathers every century or so).

“Sam…letters…Hayden…here?” Leah managed to gasp out (because even though she had run over in wolf form she had pushed herself to get here as quickly as she could).

All three vampires continued to stare at the girl trying to make sense of what she was attempting to relay. Apparently their silence and stares was enough to give her back some of her normal belligerence (something that Jane actually admired about the werewolf but would rather have her beautifully blond head ripped from her lovely body before admitting aloud).

“Close your friggen traps! You’ll catch flies, well unless that’s the point…are they like some weird delicacy to you guys?—wouldn’t have thought there was enough blood, not to mention the hygiene of it all…” Leah rambled on. Obviously whatever had caused the girl to rush over here in a panic was addling her brains.

Jane sent another of her patent glares at the werewolf, though unlike Alice, Leah seemed unfazed by the two pain promising windows directed at her being. Though the glare did seem to snap her out of her somewhat confusing side track.

“Never mind. Hayden….is, could be, might be in danger!” Leah spoke again with renewed urgency in her voice.

Those words were all that was needed to capture at least two of the three vampire’s complete attention.

“Speak” Alec demanded, the quiet, side character manner that he normally adopted out in public completely gone leaving an icy, menacing vampire in its wake. Leah took an unconscious step back at the sudden shift—Jane couldn’t really blame her; people often thought she was the more terrifying of the two twins; they were wrong.

“I went over to ‘talk’ to Sam as you guys suggested…” Leah began, the aversion she had to such an action evident in her voice, “…and I happened to overhear a conversation between him and Bella Swan. She was her usual delightful self, as was he. But what is important is the fact that he has alerted someone outside of Forks of your guy’s—and by that, I mean Hayden’s presence here. He said he told his cousin about Hayden and mentioned someone by the name of Kingsley, who Sam assured Bella was going ‘to handle the situation’”

Jane felt her non-existent stomach drop at the name. It was unfortunately all too familiar---Kinglsey was the current Minster of Magic (she knew this because of how much the kings despised the man and everyone associated with him). Apparently after the first spineless minster had gotten himself killed during the wizard’s last war, leaving Kingsley and his ‘order’ had taken over. From what she had heard he wasn’t all that different from Fudge, only now the stupid, bigoted ideas were actually coming from the minster and not the people whispering in the minster’s ear.

“Alec where is Severus?” She barked at her twin, completely ignoring the curious look she was getting from Alice and the fearful one from Leah. She didn’t bother to ask about Demetri…he would be back tomorrow; he was currently in South America speaking with the leader of the Yacumama**(one of the creatures the Volturi were currently testing the waters with to see if an alliance was possible).

“He’s in the garage with his potions…I will get him” her brother stated the stress in his voice only noticeable if you knew him. That would make sense, Severus had sound proofed the garage as if there was one ability he gained that he loathed at times (like when he wanted to concentrate on his brewing) it was being able to hear everything going on around him.

Jane wheeled around on Alice with such speed it caused the little vampire to jump back in fright. “Did you know about this?” Jane hissed out her anger at the situation causing her to seem far larger then her diminutive frame normally portrayed. Because Leah’s words had caused Harry’s prolonged absence to take on a whole new meaning.

She was going to kill Jasper if something happened to her brother. Hell, she was going to wipe out the entire town of Forks and quite possible the state of Washington if Hayden received so much as a paper cut. If she wasn’t so worried about Hayden, she would have smirked; this situation practically gave her a blessing for dolling out punishment, death and mayhem wherever she saw fit.

Oh, those stupid, stupid fools—they should have realized they only remained breathing for so long because they hadn’t posed any real threat to her and hers.

Stupid, stupid little vermin.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

When Jasper had managed to talk his way (okay so beg, plead and bargain) his way to be included in the ‘rescue Hayden from evil witches’ mission he had not expected this. To be fair, he hadn’t expected most of what happened during said rescue mission, but it was safe to say that what they found when they finally arrived at the (admittedly majestic) looking castle to swoop in and save the day—something that he was really hoping to do so (well outside of making sure that Hayden was safe and sound that is)—none of them had thought they would walk in on the scene they did. Or if the others had expected it, they did a hell of a job looking rather shocked (even the normally statue faced Severus).

To be honest he kind of needed to redeem himself in both his own, and the rest of Hayden’s family’s eyes. The fact that his mate (and yes he had come to the decision he had originally thought he would—aka: screw the Cullen’s) was literally snatched from practically under his nose was not only humiliating but rather horrifying. What kind of mate was he that he did not notice his own partner’s kidnapping?

Yeah….so he sort of needed this mission not only to get his mate back, but also get some of his own back. He was pretty sure he was a second away from being torn to pieces and added to whatever foul smelling concoction Severus had currently letting steep in their garage. And just how did he manage to get a mate who was not only a little unhinged himself, but who also seemed to have the most protective and terrifying family in the history of intimidating and terrifying families? Yeah he was just lucky like that.

When Alice had come sprinting home looking even more flighty and nervous then she normally did- practically buzzing with worry, he had been horrified to hear what she had to say. That Sam (and yes he was most definitely being turned into a hotdog at the next convenient moment…though he would probably have to get in line for his revenge) and Bella (Carslie be damned, that bitch was going down) had done; and to discover hours later that Hayden had indeed been kidnapped—and by wizards no less!? (He KNEW there was something different about his mate! He knew it!) Yeah, not the best way to find out one of his mates secrets that was for sure.

The last straw had been when Carslie had started making excuses and denying the possibility of Bella’s involvement. Yeah he had ‘lost it’. It was the one time where he had actually left Carslie speechless and not just a little scared of the normally passive blond. He knew that the coven leader was lucky that he had made those comments outside of the hearing range of the Volturi. It would have locked in a death sentence for sure.

He would have stayed to witness the after math but he hadn’t wanted to wasted anymore time dealing with his arguing family (or was it former family now that he had made the decision; even if only in his head?). So he had left them, racing over to the Volturi to find out that the twins and Severus were going to England in order to save Hayden. He didn’t know Severus’s history, but from what he gathered the vampire had a fairly good idea of where Hayden was being kept. He had proceeded to plead and beg and basically refuse to move out of the way until they had relented and agreed that he could come.

Though if the various (and rather creative) warnings and threats he had received were of any indication; it was a very, very conditional permission. He was okay with that. He knew he had screwed up and he would take anything he was given at this point.

A long ass, tense plane ride later; one where Jane spent the entire time glaring holes into the side of his head), while Severus snipped and basically belittled the very air he breathed and Alec tapped his finger in what could only be described as a menacing manner (and ok, so maybe the last one he was reading a little too much into—but you would be overly paranoid too if you were in his shoes!), they arrived in Scotland.

It took them hardly any time to run (vamp speed remember) to the place Severus had in mind…and if the mission hadn’t been so urgent or serious Jasper would be the first to admit he wouldn’t mind coming back here to further explore the ancient looking fortress in front of them (the the name—Hogwarts—didn’t really strike him as a traditional name one gave their castle; but hey-maybe Scottish wizards enjoyed nonsensical sounding names? Who was he to judge?).

It took them even less time to follow Severus down several narrow, winding hallways, stair cases and an even darker and twisted passage into the belly of the giant castle, finally arriving at what could only be called the dungeon area. Severus briefly mentioned that this part of the castle was almost never used and students didn’t even know of its existence. The single guard lying outside of one of the doors was a pretty clear indication as to where Hayden was being held (though why he was unconscious and lying on the ground was anyone’s guess).

When they opened the door he found the scene, that as mentioned before—he hadn’t expected to find.

Sitting on a chair, in the middle of the portioned room (there was bars going down the center, turning half of the room into a cell—though the door was currently standing wide open) looking rather relaxed while humming what sounded like the creepiest rendition of ‘twinkle twinkle little star ever*’ was Hayden. He had his hands crossed loosely in his lap, legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles; while seemingly ignoring a pale, ashen faced looking man who was shakily reading over a stack of papers and signing them.

An unconscious oriental woman lay on the floor a few feet away from them, as well as several burlier looking men— Hayden seemed thoroughly unconcerned with the condition of his room-mates. He looked up when he heard them enter, his small (rather creepy smile) morphing into one of genuine pleasure.

“Ahh…took you guys long enough” he commented pleasantly, before turning back to the sweaty, slightly shaking man and stating “did I say you could stop?”

The man’s flinch seemed rather exaggerated given how pleasant the tone Hayden used was. Jasper briefly wondered just what his mate had done to the man to get such a violent reaction at a seemingly innocent action.

When the man resumed what he was doing, Hayden turned his attention back towards his ‘visitors’ leisurely getting up and stretching like a cat. “Well, as soon as dear Kinglsey here is finished signing the re-negotiated deal and terms of my stay with the Volturi, we can go” Hayden stated to the still slightly speechless vampires in front of him.

“Hayden” Severus said slowly, once again surveying the scene and noting the open ‘magic suppressing cuff’ that sat next to where Kinglsey was signing papers, “what did you do? How did you get out of that cuff?”

Hayden shrugged nonchalantly, “Oh, they took it off”

Instead of this answering the question Severus had obviously wanted answered, it only seemed to confuse the vampire more. “They took it off” he asked flatly, his disbelief mirrored on his face.

“Yup” Hayden said popping the ‘p’, looking mightily pleased with himself.

“And why would they do that? Explain” Severus said again, his patience clearly wearing rather thin. Hayden must have sensed this too for this time he actually did as told and answered with an actual explanation.

“Well…it seems as though that nifty little cuff cut me off from my magic...” Hayden began, and Jasper was not sure if they had just forgot he was here or if they no longer cared if he knew all their secrets as he was Hayden’s mate—either way you were not going to hear him objecting. “…leaving me—or so they thought defenseless against them. They were apparently under the delusion that there was something wrong with my head (to which Alec snorted causing Hayden to glare at him) and were going to have her (gesturing to the unconscious girl on the floor) fix me” Hayden stated looking very annoyed at the thought. “anyway they tried to subdue me—but this time instead of it working; and just so you know I don’t know why it happened—my…well, my ring seemed to react to it” Hayden stated holding up his right hand to draw attention to a garish looking ring.

Jasper frowned slightly, he had noticed the teen’s penchant for wearing the ugly thing before—in truth, he had always found it a little odd given his mate’s attention to his appearance…it just seemed a little weird that he would wear something so tacky.

Glancing at Severus and the twins, he could tell that they weren’t sure what to make of this information either. “What happened exactly?” Severus asked staring hard at the piece of metal on Hayden’s finger.

“Well—it was kind of weird to be honest. Wispy, almost ghost like apparitions came out and well ran—or would it be floated?—anyway they float-ran towards the idiots; distracting them, and well, allowing me time to manually knock them all out” Hayden explained looking a wee bit smug at the last bit.

If anything the explanation seemed to make Severus even more unnerved then before. He finally shrugged it off, “Well…we will worry about that later, now what do you have _him_ doing?” Severus asked sneering in the direction of Kingsley.

“Oh, well…it seems as though with a little bit of…er persuasion, Kinglsey here was happy to tell me about the slight flaw in the original contract that allows them to seek me out now without losing their magic. We are simply fixing that small oversight.” Hayden stated as Kinglsey finally set down his quill (?! Why the hell were they using a quill of all things?).

“I may have added a few…um additional things to compensate us for this whole inconvenience as well” Hayden added.

“I have finished” Kingsley finally stated his voice still sounding shaky.

“Alec? If you wouldn’t mind, you know you are the best at all that legal crap” Hayden asked the until now silent vampire standing to Jasper’s right.

The vampire moved to pick up the contract and a few minutes later handed it to Hayden, “It’s all legit. We are covered”

Hayden smiled again, waving his hand to make a second copy and handing it back to the sitting wizard. “Here you are…now do we understand each other?” he asked sweetly, though there was a definite edge to the question this time around.

Kingsley nodded. Hayden leaned forward and whispered something in the man’s ear, which surprisingly enough Jasper couldn’t make out even with his superior hearing. Whatever Hayden said to the man caused him to become even more fidgety and terrified (if that was even possible), but caused him to nod again quickly, “perfectly”  

“Lovely. Great doing business with you” Hayden said, starting to move towards the door and his ‘rescuers’, “Well what are you waiting for? Let’s go home”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **The Yacumama is an ancient sea monster that lives in the Amazon River. It's a giant snake with a horned head, sometimes described as up to 160 feet long! The Yacumama engorges itself with water that it uses to spray and stun its prey. In modern times, anacondas in the Amazon rainforest have been described as up to 62 feet long, so there may very well be a real-live version of the Yacumama lurking in the wild.—taken from mentalflose: 7 legendary monsters of South America. 
> 
> *The version of the song Hayden is humming can be heard on youtube—called deadspace lullaby: it is the version from the movie. Very creepy give it a listen ;)


	19. Choosing Sides

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the next chapter (and before you throw me into the flames or mail me a land mine, the revenge on the Cullen's etc is coming in the next chapter so hold on!) 
> 
> Hope you enjoy, let me know what you think!

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_When shit goes down and sides are taken you find out who is real and who was faking.-unknown_

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Hayden sighed to himself when he caught Alec strategically placing a plastic bag full of acid over the front door. Ever since the group had gotten back to Forks, his family had not ceased to prank, glare and otherwise torture his poor mate. He shook his head when he saw Alec get a gleeful smirk on his face and scamper up into one of the trees (obviously to sit and wait for his mate to arrive and open said tricked door-resulting in dumping the battery acid all over himself). While this might sound rather horrifically damaging to most, it really wasn’t as bad as you might first think. Being a vampire, Jasper was likely to end up with irritated skin for a few hours and itching for several more (Hayden knew this because he may or may not have done similar things to most—okay, all of the guard over the years).

He debated briefly with himself before sighing once more and getting up to remove the booby-trap. While the prank might be harmless enough, he had a feeling that should Jasper be subjected to too many more of the twin’s ‘inventive’ bonding ideas, that Hayden would either have to buy him a straight-jacket or get ready for a massacre (well attempted massacre -- because he doubted that Jasper on his own, would be very successful with massacring the Volturi family).

He apparently removed the bag just in time as he saw Jasper making his way out of one of the many cars the Cullen’s had and towards the house. He heard Alec’s hiss of disproval—no doubt upset that his brilliant scheme (hey! Just because they were century old vampires did not mean that they were necessarily good at coming up with inventive/creative pranks!) had been thwarted. Hayden simply sent an evil little grin in the direction he knew his brother was hiding; he knew he was correct when he saw a pair of crimson eyes glare out at him from the thick green foliage.

It had been a little over a week since they had returned from Hogwarts and both a lot, and nothing had happened. Now this statement might seem a tad contradictory and it was in a way, but it was still true non-the-less.

When they had arrived ‘home’, the twins and Severus wasted little time telling Demetri (who had gotten back only an hour before they did) what had gone down. They wasted even less time effectively storming up and knocking the Cullen’s door to the ground (even Severus who liked to pretend to be the serious one had a certain flare for dramatics—came with the whole movie-villain thing, or so Hayden believed).

The resulting argument went about as well as expected…Hayden was amazed that any of the Cullen’s (outside of his own mate and the Rosalie-Emmet pair) were still alive. Though knowing his family as well as he did, he knew that they were simply waiting until the Cullen’s nerves had been left to fry long enough before exacting revenge. Sometimes the best revenge was the dread that built before the actual event.

While Hayden would have preferred to stay back at the house and get….er more acquainted with his mate (and yes, after Jasper had groveled and apologized, and then proceeded to denounce his loyalty to his family, Harry had accepted him as his mate—something that he had been forced to threaten the rest of his family over, considering they would have preferred to draw and quarter said mate instead) he knew that just because Jasper had renounced his family, it didn’t mean the blond was quite yet ready to jump into Hayden’s bed….again the operative word in that sentence would be yet .

His threats had seemed to work because while all four (but mainly the twins and Sev) had continued to show their distain towards the blond vampire and ‘torment’ him, they had refrained from outright killing him…so Hayden thought this was a positive. He had no doubt that given time they would eventually forgive the vampire for his in-attention (perhaps unfairly, they did not seem to hold Hayden to the same standards—not once blaming him for the same inattention…but then again he was their favorite. Snicker.)

So despite his families best attempts to chase the vampire away, Hayden and Jasper had been getting closer and closer with one another….to the degree that Hayden had accompanied Jasper on his first real ‘hunt’ since the blond had moved in with the Cullen’s. He vaguely wondered if it made him a sick individual if he had gotten turned on watching his mate (successfully) drain and murder his meal (ha ha take that West Baptist Asshole—see what you do now that you have no leader! mu hahaha. And so what if he might have stood to the side chanting ‘god hates you’ over and over while doing a jig, all while Jasper ate his meal? True it was probably not the most considerate of actions towards his nervous mate but he really couldn’t help himself).

But outside of what was happening between his mate, himself and his family; other events had taken a place causing a rather unexpected twist. When they had arrived back in Forks they were more than a little surprised to see Victoria (this was basically Hayden’s first time meeting the fiery redheaded vampire), and her two underlings (Bree and Riley, or something to that effect) waiting for them.

Hayden had initially felt as though the redhead should be warm and caring (and don’t ask him were this strange instinct came from—he suppose it might have stemmed from some instinctual memories of his own mother). He was however quickly dissuaded from this belief. The redhead turned out to be rather opposite to motherly and warm, as well as the antithesis of the hot tempered redheaded stereotype. Victoria seemed to be the very definition of cautious and calculating causing Hayden to believe that the only reason she had gone and done something so impulsive (as making a newborn army) was out of grief. Something he could understand; he had no idea what he would do if Jasper or any of his family were ever murdered over something as inconsequential as a human.

While he had wondered if it was possible that Severus had also found his mate, he soon realized that while Severus and Victoria were most definitely not mates (at least not in the romantic sense), they did seem to have some sort of platonic understanding between them. He would even go as far as calling them friends—well, as close as two severely paranoid and guarded people can get to friendship. He even saw Severus smile once (although it was a small one) so he figured that she couldn’t be all that bad.

But meeting Victoria wasn’t what was surprising about the occasion. No, what was surprising was the fact that no sooner had they arrived to see the trio waiting for them, did Alice practically skip into the area; completely ignoring the growling warnings she received from the Volturi side. Hayden and the others watch in mild disbelief as she pranced over to where one of Victoria’s lackeys were standing (the small dark haired one--Bree) and enveloped the confused little thing in a hug.

She then turned to the twins and stated, “Ok, now that my mate is here I am willing to come with you back to Italy”

Safe to say Jane actually looked a little gobsmacked at the proclamation (well before looking torn between rage and smugness that is. Rage, because she had spent the last however long trying to convince the vampire to come back with them—thus wasting her time since it seemed as though Alice had been waiting to meet her mate first and smug because well, this counted as a successes for her and Alec regardless of how it occurred).

Hayden was pulled back to the present by the sound of his mate clearing his throat, “umm…what?” he asked pretty sure he had missed whatever had just been said to him.

Instead of looking irritated or angry over the fact that Hayden had basically just admitted to not listening to him, the blond instead looked nervous and unsure (wow…maybe the pranks were having more of an effect on his psyche then Hayden had originally thought—though, it was more likely that it was living with the Cullen’s for such an extended period of time that had caused the vampire to act so unsure of himself).

“I was-I was wondering if I would be able to stay here….at least for now” Jasper asked the southern accent that was normally barely noticeable becoming thicker, showing just how nervous the vampire was at asking his question.

Hayden felt his brow furrow in confusion. What was the blond asking? Did he wish to stay in forks? Was that what he meant? Hayden had been pretty sure that he had completely convinced his mate that coming back to Italy with him was the best idea—well, after they finished cleaning up this whole mess…so what was going on? After a moment Hayden realized he was getting ahead of himself, “Stay here?” he asked cautiously trying to figure out what was going on by watching the vampire’s expression.

“Um…yes, at the house? I don’t really want to continue to stay at the Cullen house and well…I think if I were to book a room at the motel, there might not be many guests left in the end—not without my former family or…or your family to distract me from my blood lust” Jasper admitted pointedly not looking at Hayden.

Hayden felt a small bubble of relief swell inside him; as much as he continued to try and tell himself that he wouldn’t have cared if his mate had decided to stay with the Cullen’s instead of him, now that the vampire had made his decision and chosen Hayden, the hybrid could no longer deny how much he truly feared the thought of his mate abandoning him.

Jasper seemed to take his silence as rejection because his face fell (not that it was all that easy to tell considering the vampire had gotten pretty could at hiding any true emotion) and he said quickly, “Never mind…it’s okay, I understand….especially after what-what happened. I will manage….” He trailed off sounding entirely unsure of how true the last part of his statement was.

Hayden realized it was his silence causing his mate to seemingly shrink into himself and quickly tried to reassure him, “No! no it’s fine Jasper. I would love if you would stay with us…with me.”

Jasper looked up as though trying to gauge how much of Hayden’s speech was true or not, though the hybrid could see a small glimmer of hope in the vampires now pink tinged eyes (it would take him more than one kill before his eyes became a deep crimson like the rest of the Volturi guards). “Really?” he asked half skeptical, half hopeful.

“Of course. You are my mate after all….and ignore the others, they are just a tad overprotective. They will get over themselves….eventually” Hayden said.

Jasper stared at him for a long minute before nodding his agreement, “Ok” he said sounding a tiny bit surer of himself.

Hayden couldn’t help but think that the blond looked rather adorable standing before him with a (until than) unnoticed suitcase…hell, he felt like he was in that cliché ‘everything works out’ part of every romantic comedy ever written (well except 100 days of summer; since apparently the writers missed the memo for a happy-they-get-together-ending). Smirking to himself he figured he might as well dive head in to the trend.

“Oh and Jasper?” he asked doing his best not to give away his intentions.

“Yes?” Jasper asked looking up at him sounding a little confused (though there was a small amount of wariness present as well—he felt so proud of his mate, getting all paranoid and untrusting: maybe there was hope that Severus wouldn’t hate his mate for eternity after all!)

“Welcome home” he said and without pause, swooped forward to catch his mate in a passionate kiss.

Jasper didn’t bother complaining.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Leah stared a little dumbfounded at the massive red and white atrocity in front of her. What. The. Hell?

Giving her head a violent shake she forced herself to look away from what could only be at least a hundred roses, to the moron that was currently holding them up to her as though they were what she had been secretly yearning for. And just to make things clear—they weren’t…no, she would have much preferred the thick wad of bills that went into buying the bouquet instead (that way she could stalk up on peanut-butter laden ice cream…hmmm no, make that fried peanut-butter laden ice cream, yeah she could get behind that …)

She wasn’t quite sure whether to take the roses and smack Edward over the head with them or take the roses and dry them, before preserving them forever in her diary. Though, given that she didn’t actually _have_ a diary—one option was looking more likely than the other.

Seeing that Leah was standing somewhat shell shocked in front of him, Edward decided that he needed to say something-- of course it happened to be something very profound. “They are for you” –see very profound.

Leah gave him a look before gingerly taking them, “Why?” she asked bluntly figuring that given Edward’s general personality and past behavior it was better just to cut to the chase; otherwise they would be beating around that bush until it had a veritable mote around it.

“To show you that I care for you” he said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world, then seeing her expression quickly added, “And to apologize”

Leah turned away and marched into the house leaving the door open for Edward to follow her. Which he did. She tossed the bouquet onto a rather clutter filled counter (ah! That’s where the fluffy kitten shaped post it notes went!) before turning round to face him again. She didn’t miss his grimace at how she treated his ‘gift’. “Oh?” she asked in question to his previous explanation.

Edward managed to drag his eyes away from the sight of his discarded flowers and give her his full attention. He drew in a deep breath as though to summon the courage to say what he needed to, “Yes, I have been an idiot. There shouldn’t have even been a choice between you and Bella….you are my true mate and I never should have questioned that. I am sorry…”

Leah blinked for a minute. Was that an actual genuine sounding apology that she had just heard? Not only that, but was it just her or was that one of the most mature and sensible sounding sentences that she had ever heard from the vampires mouth? Wow! Alert the press….a record was being set here today and she was the one to witness it. huh.

While she could not deny how his apology made her horrid little heart flutter (and shortly after this she was going to sit down and come up with adjectives to describe herself with, that didn’t make her sound like a preteen first discovering that boy cooties were actually rather pleasant), she was not about to forgive all because of a few honest sounding words.

“What about your family?” she asked not uncrossing her arms for one second—she was totally channeling her inner Sara Connor right now—yeah she _was_ that badass.

“I-I told them…” Edward said though he sounded rather hesitant when he said it.

“And?” she prompted wanting a real answer.

“Well….Jasper wasn’t there so I don’t know about him, Rosalie was her normal self but I honestly think she might be a little happy about it. Alice didn’t seem to care—which is a little odd…though then again she rushed out half way through for some reason…..” Edward trailed off shifting again.

“And the others?” Leah asked again becoming rather cross over the evasive answers she was getting.

“Carslie didn’t believe me” Edward finally admitted, the words coming out in a rush.

“What?” Leah asked not sure that she heard him correctly. While she knew that Carslie could come off as a little bit of a goody-two-shoes, she had always thought that Edward was his world (well outside of Esme). Jacob had mentioned something about Edward having been with the leader the longest so she couldn’t really believe that the vampire that her imprinted thought of as a father, would not believe him.

“Yeah….he said that it had to be the Volturi’s influence because there was no way that a vampire would have a mate who was suppose to be their natural enemy” Edward finished sounding frustrated and helpless.

“I see…” Leah said, not really seeing at all, but what else could she say? She didn’t really think that her imprinted would chose her over the man who had been his father and protector for more than a century. Hell! He barely knew her…not to mention when it came down to it, no one ever truly chose her.

They stood there in silence for a long minute before Leah figured she should just rip off the band-aid, “Ok well…thanks for the flowers?” she said sounding unsure even to her own ears.

Edward shot her a confused look, “Your welcome” but instead of getting up and leaving like she had intended him to, he stayed standing there in her kitchen looking vaguely lost.

Well, this was awkward.

“So…so you will give me a chance?” Edward finally asked when it became clear that Leah wasn’t going to say anything else.

“No I underst….wait! what?” she stopped part way through, finally registering his words. “What are you talking about?”

“Well, you said you accepted my apology…or I guess you didn’t but I am hoping you did…so-so I was wondering if you are still willing to give this a try?” Edward stumbled slightly over his words shooting Leah was she could only call a pathetically hopeful look. Saying no to that look would be like telling Polly Anna that she was going to wind up in hell. It just wasn’t something that anyone with a shred of a conscious could do.

“Fine” she said grudgingly, though in truth she was doing a happy little jig while swooning inside. He picked her! He picked her!---okay, inner self time to stop drinking the Kool-Aid and calm down a friggen minute.

Seeing the smile spread on Edward’s face, she couldn’t truly regret her words but she thought she should probably make a few stipulations…after all she wasn’t a friggen staircase and she wasn’t about to allow ANYONE (no matter how Disney-prince-like they were) to step all over her.

“I forgive you. BUT…if you want this to work, we are going to start slow. AND you are going to have to prove to me that you have more than air between your ears. AND that I can trust you”

Instead of having the intended effect of dimming the mega watt smile being sent her way, the vampire’s smile (if it was possible) only seemed to grow larger (and were those eye teeth really that pointy?—it was a little bit creepy).

“Alright that sounds reasonable…can I take you out for dinner tomorrow night?” Edward nodded his agreement to her terms.

Leah sighed once again before agreeing to accompany the vampire to dinner (she really wasn’t sure what restaurant would be able to suit BOTH their diets but hey…try new things and all that).

She couldn’t help but feel a little bit bemused by the fact that she was watching her vampire boyfriend (could she call him that yet?) streak out of her yard.

Whether or not this worked out or not…she had no doubt it would be one hell of an interesting ride.


	20. Comeuppance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings my awesome readers! everytime I log in I am amazed by you guys ;) So this is a rather short chapter...and it is dealing with the what everyone has coming to them (though probably not in the manner you are expecting). Hopefully it is enjoybale none the less. 
> 
> For those who have enquired about bella-edward breakup. I was originally going to include it in this fic but how I have the chapter structured it didn't fit, so if there is enough interest I am considering writing a oneshot of their 'epic split' ;) let me know if this is something people would be interested in. 
> 
> Anyhow enjoy and as always let me know what you think!

* * *

 

_You reap what you sow_

* * *

 

Had most of the country not had its their focus on the turbulence and unrest that was wracking the middle east, the trial and hanging of Saddam Hussain or even Iran’s announcement that they had successfully found a way to enrich uranium and the fallout in regards to the subsequent out right defiance to the UN Security council** they might have paid a little more attention to the sudden spike in news centering around a small hamlet town known as Forks. Unfortunately, (or perhaps fortunately for them) the events that turned the small town upside down passed largely unnoticed by the majority of the world’s, or even America’s population.

As it was, not e _veryone_ turned a blind eye to Fork’s plight… no, in fact there were three powerful leaders who actually reveled in the happenings abroad. Of course the fact that these leaders were not human was neither here nor there (after all anyone can read and appreciate a good news story). And the stories that were being printed as of late were really very much to Aro, Caius’s and Marcus’s tastes.

While the first story of interest took up the entire front page of the Forks Forum, it only garnered a small mid-issue article in the Port Angeles News and even tinier blurb in the back of Seattle Weekly. Still Aro actually cut out and framed all three articles (he was sentimental like that).

_(From the Forks Forum)_

INFLUENTIAL QUILLET MAN CHARGED OF THE BRUTAL MURDER OF LOCAL TEENAGE GIRL

December 23, 2006  By: Geodric Hessting, Forks Forum Staff Writer

Sam Uley, a 20 year old Quileute tribe resident, was pulled over Sunday evening for a speeding violation. In a shocking and horrifying revelation, the body of deceased 19 year old Bella Swan was found brutally beaten and stashed in the back of the young man’s truck.

Friends and Family were floored by this discovery. The accused’s wife of two years tearfully stated. “I always knew Sam had a temper, but I am shocked and horrified to discover he could take things this far.” This seems to be the resounding sentiment shared by most members of the close knit community.

“What could have gone so wrong to end this way? Everyone thought that they were close friends—they were spending more and more time together in the last few months…It’s a tragedy, that’s what it is a tragedy” A anonymous source with personal ties to both the accused and the victim stated.

While no one is offering a motive for this brutal act of violence, one can only hope that the coming trial will bring closure so desperately needed to the victims family and this shaken community.

Yes, Aro could certainly enjoy this wonderful piece of literature…really his twins were very good at what they did. But this was not the only article that earned a place in the king’s scrapbook (they didn’t have a fridge or these snippets would have been held up by some chintzy plastic magnet for all to see). While perhaps not as dramatic as the article on the irritating human girl, it still brought the kings a small amount of satisfaction to see.

FORKS HOSPITAL IN NEED OF A NEW DOCTOR

Chief Physician opening at Fork Washington county hospital. Position to be filled ASAP. No prior experience needed. Contact Fork Hospital Management to enquire.

Ahh…yes this one amused him…he wondered briefly how Carlisle and Esme were enjoying Saskatchewan*. It was far more amusing to send them to a sunny hell hole then to simply end their existence…perhaps in a few years or so he would grant them the mercy of death. But for now….

And don’t even get him started on the wizarding papers! Oh they amused him greatly…such a dramatic sect of people…well, when they weren’t busy being dry and boring--and yes he is aware of the contradiction of this statement, but frankly he didn’t care!

He found the wizarding paper’s articles so much more amusing simply because their pictures actually moved. This small fact allowed for him and his brothers to watch the pained grimace of the no-longer Minster of magic’s face over and over and over…and well, you get the point.

It seemed as though the rest of magical Britain was really not that overly impressed with the contract that the Minster had signed, nor his failure to resolve the steadily growing ‘latest dark lord issue’ (and really you would think that after no less than three dark lords in the span of little over half a century would be the first clue to the wand waving morons, that whatever they were doing in-between the rise of megalomaniac psychopaths was not working! But hey who asked him? He and his brothers had only ruled and kept peace between their species for the last millennia or so).

Regardless, the British population was filled with angry outcries, and considering the contract that Hayden had so niftily talked the minster into signing was unbreakable, (playing on the previous rules for losing the magic of not only the signer but all of those under the signer’s rule at the time) they actually had a reason for their ire this time.

Safe to say the article that Caius taped (because really duck tape was a genius mortal invention—only coming in behind masking tape and only because of the fact that it was really very fun to tie up and scare the bejeezus out of victims---er, deserving wrongdoers by taping them to random castle walls and leaving them to ponder their fate for a few days or so) into the scrap book, was all about the former minster resigning.

There was a lovely publication that went by the name of ‘The Quibbler’ that speculated that the former minister resigned because he had been delivered a death threat from Barratry Bacciform Barney.* Aro spent the next week reading back subscriptions to the insightful paper to get up to date with the happenings of the magical world—and in some cases the magical world’s crossing over into the muggle one (who knew that the kneazles were plotting to overthrow muggle Russia simply because they didn’t agree with Putan, that Khadorkovsky was spending a lot of time in the bank of Bahamas?*)

Ahhh….yes, even the small entry stating that the caretaker Argus Filch was accused of lying and misleading the Britain’s Minstery in matters of national security earned its place in the prized book of joyous occasions. While none of the kings understood the punishment (the janitor was sentenced to remaining Hogwart’s janitor for the remainder of his living years) the expression on the grizzled, rather ugly face amused them none the less.

Yes, the rest of the world might be worried about an impending nuclear world war, but in Italy three kings were most content.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **World events that took place in the year 2006 retrieved from: http://www.infoplease.com/year/2006.html 
> 
> 1) Militant group Hamas wins 74 of 132 seats in Palestinian legislative elections (Jan. 25). Israeli leaders vote to withhold $50 million per month (Feb. 19). As well as a Danish newspaper challenges taboos against illustrations of Muhammad by printing several negative cartoons depicting him. Angry demonstrators throughout the Muslim world smash windows, set fires, and burn flags of Denmark and other nations whose newspapers reprint the cartoons (Feb. 4 onward).
> 
> 2) Saddam Hussein is convicted of crimes against humanity by an Iraqi court (Nov. 5), and hanged in Baghdad. A witness videotapes the hanging using a cell phone and captures the chaos that unfolds as Shiite guards taunt Hussein (Dec. 30).
> 
> 3) In defiance of the U.N. Security Council, Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces that Iran has successfully enriched uranium (Apr. 11). The International Atomic Energy Agency reports to the Security Council that it has found traces of highly enriched uranium at Iran's Natanz facility (July 31). U.N. Security Council resolution bans the Iranian import and export of materials and technology used to enrich uranium (Dec. 23). 
> 
> *Before you all jump on me for being prejudice against Saskatchewan and it’s lovely climate and quality of living, I would like to say that I was born and raised there…I know! No seriously though, Saskatchewan has plenty of positive qualities however it would not be a great place to be a vampire in---very sunny (all year-round) and far less population or tree coverage to hunt in. plus I find it amusing to think of Carlisle and Esme trying to blend in with curling fanatic wheat farmers ;) so if you take offense, I apologize. 
> 
> *meaning of certain obscure words--Barratry: inciting violence, Baccifrom: shaped like a berry
> 
> **Mikahil Khodorkovs-then known as one of Russia’s richest men was accused and charged of tax evasion amongst other crimes against the Russian government (then led by Vladimir Putin): in what was widely believed to be a politically motivated trial.


	21. Death's Figurehead

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey readers, here is the next chapter...agian slightly shorter then my normal, but we are getting down to the end...just tying up a few loose threads adn whatnot. Hope you enjoy it ;) 
> 
> review, review, review...er...please ;)

* * *

 

_There are storm clouds before a storm, there are living before the dead. I need a figurehead, a banner bearer who will announce my arrival to the world. –Kevin outlaw_

* * *

 

“Hayden!”

Hayden cringed slightly when he heard Caius’s not quite angry-but definitely not happy voice ring throughout the stone halls of the Volturi castle. They had been back for three days, and as much as Hayden was remiss to admit, he had thoroughly missed the ancient fortress and all of its undead inhabitants. What made their return even better however was the fact that they returned with far more bodies then they had left with. Hayden took great pleasure in seeing his mate inside the walls that he had grown up in.

Jasper was not the only one who came back with them; Victoria, Alice and Bree had also agreed to come back, although Alice and Bree were here simply as visitors, not yet having agreed to join Aro and the king’s guard yet. It was fine though, Hayden knew that the kings were convinced that they could talk the seer into staying (of course if they couldn’t, Hayden was too activate the spell that stopped her from telling the future permanently…after all it would be of no benefit to Aro and his brothers if she took her talents elsewhere. The kings had always been possessive buggers—they truly lived by the adage of if they couldn’t have something then nobody could. Perhaps it was a selfish attitude, but in the long run it was smart).

Hayden childishly wished that the others were not out hunting (it was their turn to find and secure a tour group) so that he could use his mate or at least the twins as a distracting force between him and his adoptive parent’s questions/anger. He wasn’t even sure what he had done to bring that tone to Caius’s voice--but really, it could have been any number of things. Then again, he was normally pretty thorough in covering his tracks and placing the blame on others…he still chuckled recalling the time that had resulted in Felix and Corin trying to explain just why they had decided to change all of Caius’s i-phone contacts to Puff the Magic Dragon along with his ring tone. They took the blame for it simply because Hayden had spread a rumor that they were both secret admirers of the narco dragon.

Steeling his nerve, and plastering his best ‘who me? I’m an innocent little angel’ face on, Hayden walked towards where he knew that Caius and the other two kings were sitting going over papers of some import. “Yes?” Hayden asked sweetly, just stopping himself from batting his eyes (as he was pretty sure that would be a tad overboard and not appreciated at the moment).

“Would you like to explain just why there is now a room full of plastic fangs that snap at anyone trying to pick them up?” Caius asked arching a blond eye brow.

“What?! Really? huh that is rather strange….” Hayden went for shocked, ending in indignant. Apparently he needed to work on his acting skills if the looks he was receiving were telling.

“Hayden, I have just received the notarized copy of the contract..” Aro stated sternly, though Hayden could tell that this brother at least was faintly amused—probably simply because Caius was not.

“…er, I was stopping false representation?” Hayden offered weakly.

“False representation?” Caius asked his voice tinged with disbelief.

“Well, yeah…it doesn’t do any good to your image to have a bunch of immature children running around pretending to be one of you….plus the wizarding version of the Halloween fang is dangerous, just think of the law suits I am helping you avoid! All it would take is one plastic fang to go for a carotid artery and BAM!…you have angry parents and wizards somehow placing the blame on vampires…I know how their minds work” Hayden explained looking very serious.

Caius just stared at their adoptive child in bewilderment. Honestly, he sometimes wondered if raising the child here had compounded the obvious insanity…or maybe it was the failed transformation…. He shook his head to clear his thoughts; it wasn’t as though it really mattered where Hayden got his crazyness from-- to be fair, they all had a little bit of crazy in them.

Aro waved off the explanation with a small smile (insane smile—see ALL crazy), “never mind, we actually wanted to talk to you about some information that has come to light…it would seem as though the wizarding Minstery were not completely truthful about your inheritance all those years back…apparently they decided that there were certain… _artifacts_ that should not belong to one person but rather the entire nation. With your amendments to the contract, and the goblin’s own irritation with British wizards, we have found out that there are two particularly interesting objects which you inherited”

Hayden shot the king’s a confused look, for the most part his family and personal inheritance had been handled by Heise, the Volturi’s personal banker…he wasn’t sure what was so important as to actually warrant the kings telling him about it.

“Oh?” he asked curiously.

“Yes, we are just waiting for Severus as he has a better understanding on the importance of these certain objects given their wizarding history” Marcus’s explanation ended just as someone knocked on the study door, “enter”

Speak of the devil and all that…Severus along with a slightly intimidated looking Jasper entered the room. The twins and Severus had finally eased up on tormenting the blond vampire and Hayden was happy to see the more vicious, war hardened side of his mate’s personality starting to come out. Of course in situations such as this (aka: a personal audience with the Volturi Kings) Jasper reverted slightly to become more timid and quiet. Hayden doubted that would ever change as even he, their favorite was far more cautious in their presence than normal.

“Very good…now we have already told Severus about your inheritance so Severus if you please?” Aro gestured for the dour vampire to speak. Jasper moved over so that he was standing next to Hayden, a reassuring hand on his lower back. Hayden appreciated his mate’s presence even if whatever the news turned out to be banal…time spent with his mate was never a waste.

“Hayden do you recall that wizarding fairy tale I gave you when you were….” Severus paused for a moment trying to recall how old Hayden had been at the time mentioned, “…four or five?”

Hayden knew immediately which book he was speaking of, it had always been one of the green eyed hybrid’s favorite stories…as weird as it sounded he had always felt a connection to the tale, “The Tale of the Three Brothers, by Beedle the bard” he dutifully replied.

If vampires could pale, he was sure that Severus would have in that moment; as it was, the potions master simply continued with his explanation, “Yes…after your-your ring reacted in the manner you said it did…I had my suspicions, suspicions that have been all but confirmed after seeing what objects actually belong to you”

Harry looked down again at the long ago cracked ring, he couldn’t explain why he had kept it for so long…sure it had reminded him of adventure and free will (given he had found it while exploring when he shouldn’t have been) but that reason truly didn’t explain why, in his late twenties he still kept it. Truth be told, like the story he had always felt drawn to the ugly piece of jewelry…as though it was meant for him. Which was insane.

“What objects?” he asked curious as to what possessions were causing such a stir amongst the kings and Severus.

“A wand and a cloak. The cloak…meant for invisibility belonged to your…birth _father_ ” Severus practically spat the word, “while the wand belonged to Albus Dumbledore, who in turn left it to you” Severus explained.

“Normally the wand belongs to whomever has defeated its previous owner, but because Albus died from a long acting curse caused by Voldemort…after Voldemort and his defeater, Neville Longbottom killed each other…the wand has no real owner. In cases such as this the wand belongs to whoever the last one to touch it decides it should. Dumbledore took the precaution of willing it to you should he die and no owner was able to claim it…making you the rightful owner of the Elder wand” Severus finished looking at Hayden as though this news was supposed to mean something to him.

“Ookay….” Hayden trailed off not quite understanding what the man was getting at. Sure he had read the fairytale about the infamous objects and knew that the hallow-cultists (who he felt where truly bat-shit crazy…they were the type to own large collections of dolls and talk to them) believed that if one were to own all three, they would become the master of death… but surely Severus couldn’t be saying that there was any truth to the fable…could he?

“It would explain a lot Hayden….the tattoos, that until now we haven’t been able to completely decipher. After learning about your inheritance I dove into the fables and research of some of the most avid believers…an article by a man by the name of Lovegood, something or other—published etchings that are meant to be death’s language…they look very similar to what you have on your sides. It would also explain why the transformation failed, as a vampire is essentially dead and if you truly were the master of death, you could not be ‘dead’, as death would not touch its master…” Severus explained.

“I also think that is why you stopped aging after your turning….as it was the first time you ‘died’ the hallows stepped in to confirm you as their master”

Hayden looked down at the ring on his finger, not entirely sure how to feel about this information. In a way he was oddly grateful to the object….as much as he loved his mate and his family, he had never wanted to lose his magic, the ring and he suppose—the other objects, had made it possible for him to exist in this world while still having a foot in the other one. It was a gift he knew.

“So…what does this mean? Do I have duties or things that I need to do as-as Master of death?” (And whoa, didn’t that sound weird…he was now getting a very strange picture of death in a French maids costume—yeah…best not to go there..)

“Your guess would be as good as mine, however since you haven’t done anything since your change I would assume not. I would guess that being Master of Death is more of a figure head position than anything else” Severus explained.

Hayden did not miss the excited looks on the three kings faces…figures they would get off on essentially owning the master of death. He could only shake his head ruefully at this. Vampires and their power base.

“Ok then, is that all?” Hayden asked after a minute. He ignored the five incredulous looks being sent his way over his blasé dismissal of the news. But really what was he suppose to do? Start running around wearing a dark hood and carrying a scythe? Hmmm…on second thought, that could be amusing…

Thought to ponder anyhow.

“Come on” he muttered to a slightly flummoxed Jasper, latching onto his arm and dragging towards the door sending the vampire a rather salacious grin “We have much more interesting things to do”

And indeed they did.


	22. Living in the Red

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here is the ending chapter (sob). Thanks so much to all you awesome readers and reviewers! special thanks to a few really witty and faithful reviewers who kept me laughing and motivated-you know who you are ;) I hope that this ending lives up to your expectations! LEave me a review and let me know!

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_I find the best way to love someone is not to change them, but instead, help them reveal the greatest version of themselves.” ―_ [ _Steve Maraboli_ ](http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4491185.Steve_Maraboli)

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**_July, 2058_ **

**_Forks, Washington_ **

As was perfectly understandable for anyone discovering their first grey hair, Jacob Black was sitting on the back porch with a glass of lemonade staring down at the notepad in his lap. It was obviously time to start writing his memoir; after all, it was all downhill from here. Tess would say that he was being melodramatic but then again she said that about most things he did, sometimes he wondered why he loved that woman.

He shook his head and once again picked up his pen (which was one of those annoying hotel brand ones that only worked about half the time before exploding all over you in an inky bomb—and no, it wasn’t because he got frustrated and gripped the stupid thing too tight). Just as he got down an introduction—because according to his grade ten teacher back in the day, intro’s were the most important part of the story—which in all honesty never made any sense to Jacob, wouldn’t the conclusion or the ending be more important? Anyhow…getting off track AGAIN. As he was saying, he had just picked up his pen when he was interrupted by the sound of a car engine.

Sighing he tossed the pad of paper away for the moment and slowly stood up to stretch his crinked back (he was almost seventy after all…one’s joints stop working so smoothly when you reached a certain age!) before moving through the tiny (and Tess would tell him it was quaint not tiny) house to get to the door.

Now, when he was back in high school had you told him that he would be glad to have a blood sucker standing on his front porch waiting to come in and watch the upcoming game, he would have torn you limb from limb…yet here he was opening the front door and welcoming Edward Cullen-Clearwater into his house to do just that. Yes things had changed.

Perhaps he should back up a little….things started to change, and really change after Sam Uley was convicted and sent to prison for life for the murder of Bella; and wasn’t that a shocker? Somehow Jacob had never been truly convinced over Sam’s guilt (well at least in that crime anyway) but in the end the evidence was pretty clear…so who was he to protest?

Not to mention he wasn’t the only one in the pack who was relieved that Sam was no longer around to make their lives difficult. Given that he was the beta of the pack and really the rightful leader to begin with, he had taken over as pack alpha and had remained so for thirty some odd years. Not to pat himself on the back or anything but he made a fairly rocking leader in his oh-so-humble opinion. Of course anyone can get tired of being in a position of authority—especially if they never really wanted to be in that position to begin with—so it was with no hard feelings that he had ‘retired’ and handed the leader position over to his grandson Henry when the time came.

Of course once he was no longer the leader of the pack, and had stopped shifting quite as often, his until then frozen in time body had started to age like it was supposed to—hence his discovery of grey hair. But if you let him truly think about it (and didn’t just catch him in the moment of a mid-life crisis) he would tell you that he was okay with this.

The last several decades had seen some drastic changes for the reserve and the Quileute tribe, while many were still leery and suspicious of their fanged counterparts on a whole, seeing how happy Edward and Leah were together had won over many to at least guarded acceptance. It probably helped that it was clear to anyone who saw the couple that Leah clearly wore the pants in the relationship—it helped silence all those who said that she would lose herself to the vampire’s infamous possessive need to control their mates. In this case at least, it definitely didn’t happen.

So, maybe that was how he should start his story…start not when he was born and through his rather ordinary childhood but begin when it all started to change. And while the most noticeable point would be after Sam’s arrest; that was not when things truly started to shift.

No….when Jacob thought of change he could think of only one thing, or rather person….

It all began with a certain green eyed boy.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Thousands of miles away in a walled off city, a certain green eyed boy who was currently dressed in all black and holding a macabre looking scythe, waited patiently for his mate to come around the corner (he never grew tired of watching Jasper jump in surprise). It was safe to say that here at least….things hadn’t changed in at all.

And if Hayden had anything to say about it…they never would.

*Evil smirk*

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THE END!!!


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